Baker Mayfield tries hard not to knock anybody, but you can see by Andrew Gribble's quotes of him that he (and other players) are almost giddy to have Freddie Kitchens running the offense.
Mayfield talks about better communication (as in TWO-WAY communication) between the players and this coordinator.
Baker also said that if the players weren't comfortable at, or wouldn't be good at, doing something, they wouldn't do it.
Imagine that! How revolutionary!
I know that Todd Haley would tell you that he communicates just fine. The thing is, he doesn't listen to his players. His "communication" is giving orders.
This was part of his problem with the Steelers: Ben Roethsenberger has been around forever, and Haley refused to listen to him. So you know all his communication with his rookie quarterback was one way.
As I posted a few weeks ago, it was obvious to everybody (including Hue Jackson) except Todd Haley that putting Mayfield seven steps deep, not moving him ever, not using Duke Johnson at all, and running vertical, slow-developing routes was going to get him killed.
Now Freddie takes over, and the sun is shining again.
Kitchens will remain loyal to Todd Haley, who helped his carreer along, but the players don't have to. Listen to them.
Todd Haley is a really smart, capable coach, but he will never be a great one, because he's a "my way or the highway" blockhead who rigidly sticks to his system, regardless of the players he has. Square pegs in round holes.
Freddie Kitchens may or may not be a genius, but he doesn't have to be. All he has to be is REASONABLE.
Lord Insideous in New England has won Superbowls with all sorts of different offensive schemes. Each and every year, he looks at what players he has, and he and Tom Brady just make the most of them.
That's not genius. It's common sense. And Freddie Kitchens has common sense! D U H.
We can be optimistic about this 2018 offense going forward.
It was probably good for Baker Mayfield (in some ways) to be forced to play in a predictable system tailor made to get him killed.
Like he always has, he tried very hard to adapt and overcome, and no doubt this experience will make him a better quarterback than he would have been over time. We can give Haley credit for that.
Kitchens couldn't make drastic changes in one week, and he's still using Haley's playbook (just including the plays that Haley wouldn't let Mayfield or Duke Johnson run...I'm not sure about the bootlegs--does Todd Haley HAVE any bootlegs in his playbook?)
The Duke stuff is pretty obvious, when it's out of the backfield. Defensive backs can't jam him, and he's coming from the middle of the field. You can't really "cover" him--you just keep a safety back and try to smash him as he catches it.
That tendancy/threat will prevent defenses from blitzing as much, as of now, because it's designed to burn inside "run"-blitzes.
Free safeties will have to hang back a little more, and keep one eye on Duke every time he's on the field. In general, defenses will need to run more zone with their bigger safeties and coverage linebackers, and Mayfield can and will carve that up; it's what he does best.
Greg Robinson (and Hubbard) looked good, but take that with a grain of salt. Baker Mayfield was running around, and was ALLOWED TO be a sharpshooter and get rid of the ball quickly.
KC was quickly forced to back off and just focus on stopping Chubb and putting a lid on the receivers.
It's amazing that Todd Haley refused to do these obvious things.
Unfortunately, it's the Browns, so now both EJ Gaines and Denzel Ward joined Terrence Mitchell on the injured list, and Gregg Williams can't run his optimum defense for now.
He'll have to run softer coverage, just in time for Matt Ryan and the Falcons. How very Browns, right? Perfect!
Well we can hope that one or both (Gaines/Ward) can play this sunday--I can't find any news on them yet.
I'm glad that Gregg Williams chose to make Damarius Randall inactive and give him a chance to heal. It's possible that Hue Jackson had been overriding him on this.
The Browns had a snowball's chance against the Chiefs, and this was a very pragmatic and logical decision.
Letting Greg Robinson replace the dinged-up Des Harrison at left tackle was also smart (and set up a competition, based on Williams' performance vs KC).
Gregg Williams doesn't seem "desperate" to prove he can be a great Head Coach (or to save his job hint-hint), as his decisions so far have been realistic and rational.
The Falcons are beatable. Hopefully, the extra week of rest can bring Randall back semi-healthy, and Gregg can get Ward and/or Gaines back in time.
Joe Schobert is a bigee too. He might be back.
Anyway, expect the Browns offense to be MUCH better now that Todd Haley is gone, and Baker Mayfield and Duke Johnson are unchained, and Higgins is back, and Ratley vs Callaway is a legitimate competition.
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