CLEVELAND, Ohio — Browns offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, who will double as the Browns quarterbacks coach, already has Baker Mayfield putting his best foot forward.
In an effort to help dig Mayfield out of the QB doldrums, Van Pelt, a former NFL quarterback, has changed up the QB’s footwork, having him lead with his left foot in the shotgun and on three-step drops.
“I have a belief and a philosophy of footwork, and it’s extremely important to me — Kevin [Stefanski] as well,’’ said Van Pelt. “It all starts with the feet. The feet never lie. They get you through your progressions. So just some of the ways that we’ll have him drop both from under center and in the gun will change slightly to help him.”
Mayfield finished second in the NFL with 21 interceptions last season, and Van Pelt believes some of it was tied to his footwork.
"There's three different ways from the ‘gun,’’ Van Pelt said. “You can be in a balanced stance. You can have your right foot up or your left foot up. Right now, it's his right foot up. I think we're going to switch him to left foot up and see how he likes that because, to me, that allows a quarterback to play with more rhythm. It's quarterback junkie talk, but it's something I believe in."
He’s already got Mayfield, who tumbled to second-last in the NFL, practicing the switch.
"It's not hard,’’ he said. “I’ve been in touch already and just said, 'Hey, think about putting your left foot up. Just do it in your living room.' You work through it and you feel more comfortable with it and then it becomes habit like anything else."
He believes it will help Mayfield make more beautiful music than he did last year, when his completion percentage slipped to 59.4%, second-last in the NFL.
"In my opinion, it helps in the three-step game, the quick game,’’ Van Pelt said. “There's more rhythm. It's not as robotic. It's more fluid. I've always used the term I want the feet to be like Mozart and not like Metallica, if that makes sense, and not to say that he is. But with the footwork, it's just a fluid motion. You're really back there dancing through the pocket as you go through your progressions."
Van Pelt, who coached Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay and Andy Dalton in Cincinnati, said he made a similar switch with Dalton. Unfortunately for Dalton, the Bengals have been on a downturn over the past few years from and he finished last in the NFL behind Mayfield with a 78.3 rating last year and 30th with a 59.5 completion percentage.
“Andy [Dalton] would be the latest one,’’ Van Pelt said. “[Bengals QB] Ryan Finley came in as a rookie last year and I thought it helped improve him once he got the footwork down. We struggled a little bit in the spring with it, but after the summer when we came back for training camp it was a lot better.’’
He said he hopes Mayfield’s muscle memory will prevent him from reverting to the old way “but, yeah, it can happen. Yes, it does early on.’’
He said he’d rather coach Mayfield up on the new techniques rather than have him work with an independent quarterback guru in the offseason, something Mayfield has rejected anyway.
“No disrespect to any of the guys that work with the quarterbacks,’’ Van Pelt said. “They all do a great job, but I would like to consider myself in that area and I’d like to have him do it how we would do it here. So if somebody’s one board with how we do it [fine], but I’d hate to have him go somewhere else and teach him a different set of footwork or drill work."
Van Pelt, who spent nine seasons as a backup quarterback for the Bills and 11 as an NFL quarterbacks coach, will serve as QB coach even if he doesn’t have the formal title. Former Broncos QB coach T.C. McCartney, an offensive assistant, will also help out with QBs.
“My plan is to be the voice in the room, and I think that’s very important,’’ Van Pelt said. “One of my strengths as a coach is coaching the quarterbacks, so I definitely want to make that part of my job responsibility."
He said he’s not wed to the idea of calling plays and will abide by the wishes of Stefanski, who will watch him call plays through training camp and the preseason and then likely make a decision.
“I could easily call plays – I work for Kevin and am excited to do whatever role he wants me to do,'' he said. "Right now, I’m coordinating and helping set this offense up with some good coaches.
"Not having worked with Kevin in the past, I’m sure he needs a comfort level with me as a coordinator. Right now, it’s nothing I’m getting hung up on.”
Van Pelt also acknowledged the Browns will use a lot more play action this season, which should boost Mayfield’s production. Last season, Freddie Kitchens used it only 28.7% of the time. Using play-action, Mayfield completed 66.5% of his passes with 11 TDs and 6 INTs en route to a 102.5 rating. Without it, he completed 56.4% of his attempts with 11 TDs, 15 INTs and a 68.8 rating, according to profootballfocus.com.
“That’s the plan,’’ Van Pelt said. “If you’re running the ball well with the guys that we have -- we think that we will be running the ball well -- then the play-action’s a huge part of explosive gains, completion percentages, everything that comes off that. Play-action will be a big part of what we do, it’s something I’ve always believed in. I was taught a long time ago by a guy named Paul Hackett, who emphasized the play-action art of it, or the lost art of it, and I think that’s something we’ll get back to.’’
He acknowledged that the Browns will run the Gary Kubiak version of the West Coast offense that Stefanski called last year in Minnesota.
“Exactly, that’s the starting point,'' Van Pelt said. "It will start with the wide zone and the play-action pass and the movement to keep passes off of that will be a big part of what we do.”
Van Pelt re-iterated that he loved Mayfield coming out of Oklahoma, loves the “fire and passion in his game’’ and can’t wait to coach him.
“Obviously, he has the skillset, the talent, the arm, throwing the ball on the move, to escape pressure and all of those things,’’ he said. “I think the future is bright.”
He cited a 64% completion percentage as Mayfield’s benchmark.
“Anything above that, you’re playing really well and efficient,’’ he said. “All of that comes into play of are you taking advantage of your check-downs and little things like that.’’
Van Pelt has also been impressed with Nick Chubb, who finished second in the NFL with 1,494 rushing yards in 2019.
“The more of him I have watched, the more impressed I am,’’ he’s a strong runner. He has the speed to get through the hole, but he also has the ability to break those arm tackles. Those guys aiming for his legs. … He runs through a lot more arm tackles than I thought just watching. A very strong runner with width, burst and speed and has great vision and feel.”
Likewise, he’s excited about Kareem Hunt, who only scratched the surface in the Browns’ offense last year.
“He’s very exciting to watch,’’ he said. “You can see the passion for the game come out in his play. He seems like a team guy. Whether he is lead blocking, running routes out of the backfield or carrying the ball, he does it all well. To have two of those guys is exciting.”
He’s already begun to imagine the possibilities with the two backs on the field.
“If you want to keep a smaller defensive group out there, then you can run the ball with two effective runners,’’ he said. “If you want to get bigger and try to stop the run, now you have mismatch problems if you motion one of those guys out of the backfield because both of those guys are good route runners and can catch the ball well. It’s interesting, I’d think we’d have those guys on the field a lot because of those.”
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