What’s wrong with the Browns and Odell Beckham Jr.?

Odell Beckham Jr. and the Browns have both had a disappointing 2019 season.

Beckham is getting fewer targets in Cleveland, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

In the fall of 2018, Odell Beckham Jr. got frustrated with the New York Giants and his lack of targets downfield. In the fall of 2019, Odell Beckham Jr. is frustrated with the Cleveland Browns and his lack of targets downfield.

The All-Pro wide receiver couldn’t get quarterback Baker Mayfield’s attention on a pivotal fourth-down play in a 24-19 Week 9 loss to the Broncos. After that pass instead went to a double-covered Jarvis Landry, Beckham was visibly frustrated and could be heard telling teammates: “I can’t get the ball to save my life.”

His Browns, favored to win the AFC North this preseason, are now 2-6 — worse than they were in 2018 when Hue Jackson was fired after a 2-5-1 start.

Beckham didn’t point fingers when he was asked about his play in the locker room. That doesn’t mean he was happy about one losing team behind for another last offseason.

Beckham expected better in Cleveland. The Browns worked hard to build around his unique talent. Somehow, it’s failed to work out for either side.

The Browns aren’t giving Beckham the opportunities the Giants did

Beckham’s frustration at the end of Sunday’s loss is understandable. While he finished his game with five catches and 87 yards — the third-most yards he’s gained as a Brown this season — he had only six targets in a game where Mayfield threw the ball 42 times. A seventh target could have been the difference between victory and defeat. Here’s what Beckham did on fourth-and-4, when Mayfield threw the ball to a fully blanketed Landry instead.

This was made even more egregious by the wizardry Beckham had pulled off four plays earlier. He’d pushed Cleveland into Denver territory with the kind of insane catch that should have convinced everyone on the Browns sideline to throw the ball to the former Giant at every single opportunity:

That turned out to be the last target Beckham got on Sunday. And it wasn’t that surprising.

Through eight games, the All-Pro is tied with Landry as the Browns’ most wanted receiver; each has been targeted 67 times. But there’s been a major difference. Beckham hasn’t exactly been utilized like a generational WR1, but he also hasn’t exactly inspired confidence in his connection with Mayfield. Here’s how it looks in advanced data after Sunday’s loss, per Pro Football Focus (with an assist from SIS).

Mayfield’s targeting Jarvis slightly further downfield than Beckham, but he’s also hit him with lower-quality passes. Jarvis is doing more with less than his new teammate, thanks in part to Beckham’s uncharacteristic drop rate through the first nine weeks of the season. Other than that, the two have had a fairly similar impact in the Browns’ offense — which is fine, just not enough to make a huge impact for a team whose playoff chances have been crushed into powder.

But how does Beckham’s 2019 situation compare with his last two years in New York? Here’s how those midseason numbers look contrasted against the 16 games he played over the 2017 and 2018 seasons with the Giants:

So yes, Beckham hasn’t been super reliable in 2019, but he has a case here if he’s wondering if he’s being sold short. After thinking he’d been freed from the low-wattage passing of late-stage Manning to thrive alongside a blossoming young passer, he’s instead getting targets from Eli 2.0 (or Young Eli, which I will soon be pitching to CBS, please do not steal my sitcom idea). Manning’s QB rating when targeting Beckham his last two seasons as a Giant was 93.9. Mayfield’s is 72.7.

Beckham averaged 10.5 targets per game as the crown jewel of the Giants’ passing game from 2014-18. In the four seasons where he played 12 weeks or more with New York, no one else on the roster averaged more than 7.9.

Now he’s sharing space in the crown alongside Landry and that number is down to 8.4 — same as his former LSU teammate and current formation bookend.

That’s how Beckham is getting the ball less on a pass-heavy team that’s needed come-from-behind efforts in the majority of its games this year. The occasionally superhuman wideout hasn’t seen an uptick in targets or wins since leaving Manning behind. Part of that is due to the Browns’ inability to naturally incorporate him in the offense that took the league by surprise in late 2018. It’s also fair to say he hasn’t been as consistent as Landry, who already has a full year of playing with Mayfield under his belt.

Spreading the ball away from his top WR is what got Freddie Kitchens the Browns’ job in the first place

Kitchens was a breath of fresh air for the Browns after being promoted to interim offensive coordinator last season. His predecessor, Todd Haley, leaned heavily on Landry to prop up an undermanned unit. Cleveland was singularly focused, predictable, and easy to stop in that 2-5-1 start.

Kitchens flipped the switch and empowered Mayfield to turn anyone who lined up as eligible into a weapon. Landry’s targets fell from 11.8 per game (and a 52 percent catch rate) to 6.9 and a 58 percent catch rate as the team rallied to a 5-3 finish with players like Duke Johnson, David Njoku, Antonio Callaway, and Ravens castoff Breshad Perriman all leading the team in receiving yards in various games. Mayfield played MVP-caliber football behind center in that stretch, throwing 19 touchdowns en route to a 106.4 passer rating over the last half of his rookie campaign.

That passing diversity has waned in 2019 due to a few reasons: Beckham’s arrival, Callaway’s four-game suspension to start the season, and Njoku landing on injured reserve foremost among them. But while Beckham may not be getting the targets he’d like, his presence has definitely changed Kitchens’ and Mayfield’s chemistry compared to the last half of 2018. Here’s what that looked like last year:

And here’s what it looks like through half of Kitchens’ first year as head coach.

Cleveland has altered its offensive DNA and is worse off for it. That’s not to put the blame at Beckham’s feet, however. Mayfield and the offensive line have regressed. The creativity that marked Kitchens’ ascendance has been in short supply. The rest of the Browns have woken up to find it’s 6 a.m. on Feb. 2 once again, and that they’d better not forget their booties because it’s coooooooold out there.

How do the Browns fix this AND keep Beckham happy?

Great question. The first and most obvious fix is to hit Beckham on fourth down when he’s streaking down the sideline with a cornerback three yards in his wake. The Browns know that, so let’s assume they’ll start there.

The other part of the equation requires building Mayfield back up to a Pro Bowl level. He’s got a long way to go after leading the league in interceptions through half the 2019 season. The second-year quarterback has yet to throw multiple touchdown passes in a single game despite one of the league’s most powerful 1-2 punches at wideout. While an offensive line that’s allowed his sack rate to spike deserves some (but not total) blame, Mayfield has looked lost in the pocket. The confidence that had simmered to a boil the past four years is nowhere to be found.

Throwing the ball to Beckham in times of crisis could help, but it behooves Kitchens to involve more of his offensive weapons. That’s going to be a little difficult without Njoku in the lineup. Without 2018’s second-most targeted player, Cleveland’s tight ends (Ricky Seals-Jones, Demetrius Harris, and Pharaoh Brown) have combined for 19 catches through half a season.

But there are players available who can thrive in the space created by Beckham and Landry and reduce the amount of double-teams those two see. Callaway was solid as a rookie but has struggled to regain that form as his yards-per-target number has dropped from an efficient 10.3 over the last half of 2018 to 5.9 in his four games this season. Rekindling that downfield connection would be a boon for Cleveland’s lost passing game.

Although Duke Johnson is gone, Week 10 will mark the first game the Browns will have former Chief Kareem Hunt in the lineup following his eight-game suspension for violations of the league’s personal conduct policy. While Nick Chubb has been useful as a receiver in the backfield, he’s averaging more than four fewer yards per catch in 2019 than Hunt has averaged in his NFL career.

Other contributors like Damion Ratley, KhaDarel Hodge, Rashard Higgins, Taywan Taylor, and tailback Dontrell Hilliard could all help prop up Mayfield’s passing attack. Kitchens’ turning them into stars may be a long shot — but hey, he turned Perriman into the team’s top wideout on multiple occasions last fall, so let’s not put anything past him.

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Kitchens is still calling the plays in Cleveland and has no plans to give that up. There’s still hope he can turn things around, especially if he can remember what got him there. But he’s got to walk a tightrope between keeping his offense functional and getting Beckham the targets he deserves without breaking his gameplan. That is a fine line for any coach — especially one who had never been so much as a full-time coordinator before 2019.

Kitchens is feeling his seat warm up just nine weeks into his head coaching debut. That can change as his receiving corps grows together, Mayfield finds a way out of this sophomore funk, and the budding young coach stops overthinking his world and gets back to the freewheeling philosophies that made him an intriguing offensive coordinator. It can also sew seeds of discontent that lead to irreconcilable differences and trade demands.

The Browns hope this case will be the former. Their history suggests it’ll more likely be the latter.