Why Josh McDaniels, Baker Mayfield and the Browns are an ideal match
Baker Mayfield and Josh McDaniels need each other — right now.
New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is still a hot coaching candidate, with reported interest (so far) from three teams during the yearly head coaching headhunting exercise. But his team’s offense hasn’t actually been that good when it has counted in 2019. Quarterback Tom Brady probably finished his worst regular season of his career. General manager Bill Belichick didn’t help Belichick the coach, and that left McDaniels tinkering with a passing offense that features Julian Edelman, James White, Mohamed Sanu, Rex Burkhead and N’Keal Harry. It hasn’t been pretty.
In the event Brady’s decline will continue, McDaniels may want to abandon ship. It’s not that it is sinking, necessarily. The future just looks hazier than ever. The Patriots are notorious for selling on a player a year too early, rather than a year too late. Perhaps McDaniels should sell on his tenure with the Patriots before he’s left to manage Brady’s deeper decline — or, more complicated, Brady’s potential departure in free agency this offseason. In the coming years, New England’s offensive coordinator position may not be the glamorous role it is now. Maybe it will be — maybe Brady stays and proves the world wrong or maybe Belichick drafts and quickly develops another stud signal-caller. But there’s more uncertainty than ever. If the situation in New England gets worse, McDaniels’ job opportunities may grow slim.
And that’s probably how Mayfield feels: uncertain. During the 2019 offseason, the Browns offense was the most exciting unit in the NFL. The hype was unjustified, of course. But Mayfield seemed like he could sling with swagger. Coach Freddie Kitchens appeared poised to unlock Mayfield’s potential, particularly with help from Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry, David Njoku, Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. It looked like the starting lineup for a fantasy football team. If you’d drafted that team, you were probably playing for last place. Cleveland failed to realize its potential in the most unfortunate way in 2019.
McDaniels’ offensive genius — though old news — is still ever present. Mayfield’s talent hasn’t dried up, nor has Beckham’s. The integration of that talent could bring everyone involved to a higher level.
The biggest question for McDaniels is job security. The Browns, after all, are an organization that blows their nose with quarterbacks and coaches. Owner Jimmy Haslam hires and fires quickly and consistently at both positions. McDaniels shouldn’t take this job without assurances of a three-year timeline — and with so much interest, he could probably get it. McDaniels also probably wouldn’t want general manager John Dorsey to stay — with McDaniels reportedly favoring Patriots personnel executive Dave Ziegler. That’s another request Haslam can honor. (He’s fired plenty of GMs quickly, too.) McDaniels should require complete buy-in in a way Haslam hasn’t done for past coaches.
If Haslam can pause his capricious behavior, McDaniels, Mayfield and the Brown might do something they haven’t done in a long time: win.