BEREA, Ohio -- During a joint practice against his former team last month, Cleveland Browns wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. ran sprints alone, waiting for a break in the action. Soon enough, quarterback Baker Mayfield joined his side. And as the scrimmaging resumed on the other end, the two rapidly worked route after route on their own -- seemingly underscoring the urgency they face as a pairing.
When the Browns landed Beckham from the Giants, most everyone assumed he and Mayfield would form one of the NFL’s most dynamic passing tandems.
Instead, they’ve mystifyingly been one of its least efficient.
Now, heading into a third season together, time is running out on the duo to make it work.
“When it comes to chemistry and that trust factor, we’ve made huge strides,” Mayfield said. “I know he feels the same way.”
Beckham, who declined to speak to the media the entire preseason, is listed as questionable for Sunday’s opener in Kansas City (4:45 p.m. ET, CBS). But on the heels of a remarkable recovery from knee surgery, all signs point to him playing against the Chiefs.
The return of Beckham’s electrifying playmaking could be the element that elevates Cleveland into a legitimate Super Bowl contender. But it also reintroduces a variable for Mayfield, who so glaringly has thrived in the past without him. Effectively making this a make-or-break season for the Mayfield-Beckham connection.
“They’re in a really good place right now,” offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt said. “All of the work they did in the offseason. … hopefully that will show this year on the field.”
Injuries have derailed Beckham’s Cleveland tenure to this point. He suffered a sports hernia injury his first week of training camp in 2019. And though he still played through the injury, he rarely was able to practice, robbing him and Mayfield of any opportunity to hone their timing.
Surgery, as well as COVID-19, kept Beckham from working out with Mayfield during the 2020 offseason. And again, adapting to a new system under coach Kevin Stefanski, the two struggled to find a groove, up until Beckham’s season-ending ACL tear in his left knee Week 7.
“He’s been a guy who’s been struck with a lot of (injury) hardships,” said Jarvis Landry, Beckham’s wideout teammate and closest friend on the team. “We just want to see him (get back to doing) all the things we know he can do.”
Despite OBJ’s transcendent talent and Mayfield’s impressive surge down the stretch last year, their numbers as a pair have been ghastly.
Since 2019, they own the NFL’s second-worst completion percentage of any quarterback-receiving duo with at least 150 attempts, posting a connection rate of 54.6%, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
“When Odell is in the game, Baker thinks players over plays,” ESPN analyst and former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky said. “And as a quarterback, when you get the playcall, your brain should naturally -- and this is what he does when Odell is not in the game -- go, what is my play? Then defense. And then you think players. … It’s not an Odell thing. It’s a Baker thing. Baker has got to trust play, defense, players, no matter if Odell is on the field.”
That contrast was on display in the game where Beckham was injured.
On the underthrown interception in Cincinnati leading to Beckham’s knee injury, Mayfield admitted he wanted to give OBJ a chance in one-on-one coverage. Yet later, when the Browns came back to the same play, Mayfield didn’t throw the ball up for grabs to Beckham’s replacement. Instead, he read the defense and completed a seventh consecutive pass to Landry, who’d been open on the same curl route earlier.
From that game to Week 15 minus Beckham, Mayfield ranked third in QBR, trailing only back-to-back MVPs Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Rodgers.
“We’re going to call the shots (to Beckham) when (Stefanski) feels comfortable in doing so,” Mayfield said. “For me, it’s just going through the reads and not forcing anything, and much like the mentality I had the second half of last year, find the open guy, go through my reads, trust the system and go through my progressions every play.”
If Mayfield does that, Orlovsky believes the Browns could boast an offense “as good as any in the NFL,” with Beckham back in the fold.
“Obviously, his catching ability speaks for itself, but I think people forget how truly fast he is,” Mayfield said. “Safeties have to worry about that. Teams will have to defend it. And (they can) pick their poison because we’re a physical, run-first-mentality team, and that’s not going to change, no matter who we have out there at receiver. He adds an element to where teams are going to have to decide.”
As Beckham has rehabbed from the latest injury, he and Mayfield finally have piled up reps.
Now Baker and Odell getting one-on-one work on their own behind the practice pic.twitter.com/hqYJQTB2yM
— Jake Trotter (@Jake_Trotter) August 20, 2021
That started in the summer, when Beckham flew to Mayfield’s hometown of Austin, Texas, and it’s continued through the preseason. It even carried over to Labor Day weekend, when they -- along with Landry and tight end Austin Hooper -- traveled to Montana, where they practiced on the Tom Brady field at Yellowstone Club.
“Anytime you can continue to get reps,” Mayfield said, “you’re going to continue to see improvements.”
Browns backup quarterback Case Keenum has marveled at the chemistry Mayfield and Landry have consistently enjoyed, at times connecting on routes not even in the playbook. Keenum said in Minnesota he had an immediate rapport with Adam Thielen; with Stefon Diggs, the chemistry didn’t come so easily.
Finally, though, it clicked with Diggs, culminating in the “Minneapolis Miracle,” with Keenum beating New Orleans in the playoffs on the game’s final play -- a 61-yard touchdown strike to Diggs.
“Some (quarterback-receiver duos) take a lot more work,” Keenum said. “But I really do feel like that some of those ones that did take the most time, man, when it did hit, the floodgates just poured.
“With Baker and Odell, I see it coming.”