5 Cleveland Browns whose stock dropped at Week 9 Bye

5. Baker Mayfield

Through eight games, nobody yet knows if Baker Mayfield is a franchise quarterback.

I know, I know. No mini camp, no OTAs, another new coach. The odds have been stacked against the former No. 1 overall pick.

He looked super in one game: The Bengals. While beating Cincy is awesome, they’ve been worse than the Browns during Baker’s tenure. Of course those are games he should’ve won.

Against the Steelers and Ravens, well, Mayfield looked replaceable–and the analytics agree. Mayfield was the analytics darling coming out Oklahoma in 2018, yet his grade of 67.5 says he’s playing at a replacement level.

The play-action pass was supposed to be the thing that helped Mayfield take off under Stefanski, but to this point, the success hasn’t increased dramatically. He ranks sixth among NFL quarterbacks  in the percentage of play-action snaps he takes, but his completion percentage only increased by 1.6 parent on those throws, compared to 10.1 in 2019, according to PFF.

Mayfield’s completed 61.4 percent of his passes, which is only slightly better than last season.

He’ll be the No. 1 storyline to watch in the final eight weeks as the Browns hunt a playoff berth. Will he lift his team up, or will he falter as he did in games against Baltimore and Pittsburgh?

Out of all the players here, he’s the candidate most likely to have his stock go up by season’s end.

The Browns knew Mayfield’s professional career has been hurt by the turmoil on the sidelines and in the front office, so they tried to build him up this offseason by fixing the line and adding weapons at tight end.

Unfortunately, he’s been more game manager than guy who can lead this team to a Super Bowl. That said, there’s plenty of time for him to change everyone’s mind.