What's up with Odell Beckham Jr. and Baker Mayfield?
Liz Loza and Matt Harmon examine why the Browns' wide receiver and quarterback are struggling to connect.
Hear the full conversation on the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
LIZ LOZA: Kareem Hunt, who had another big follow up to his breakout performance in week three. He only carried the ball 14 times to Chubb's 21, but he found the end zone on the ground where his Chubb hit 100 yards. That's great for him, but he wasn't able to punch it in on the ground.
And then Hunt grabbed another two through the air for 17, he saw four targets. It was really-- your man Rashard Hollywood Higgins and OBJ, who dominated the target load for Baker. But you know, Matt, I'm burying the lead a little bit here. I know you hate it. We got to talk about the chemistry between Baker Mayfield and Odell Beckham jr. because-- I mean, it would appear as though that is a problem.
MATT HARMON: I don't know, I think Baker just didn't play well in this game. I think he just overall, like I mean, Browns Twitter was really pissed about his performance in this spot. And you know, everything is working for this Browns offense, but Mayfield is still going to-- this is why even as he was like crushing it to start last year or to end last year, excuse me. I still kind of compared him to the guy who he played today, Kirk Cousins. Kirk is going to have these moments where he gets white hot, plays extremely efficient.
Kirk, is also going to have those games where he throws up all over his shoes. And this was kind of-- I just don't think Mayfield played well in this game. It's not as if like you know, you clearly look at him and Beckham. And they're just like not on the same page with certain routes or stuff like that. I just don't think he played a played a strong game overall.
And I still maintain that it's kind of a coincidence that this happens now that Beckham's back because like last week it wasn't a problem at all, you know? They were perfectly in sync last week and I just think the Vikings pass rush kind of got the better of the Browns offensive line at different points too. And Yeah, I just-- Mayfield's going to have these games like he's still not a quarterback that every single week. We know exactly what we're going to get from him.
LIZ LOZA: I mean, but I guess I hear what you're saying and I'm not disputing the fact that Baker is a streaky quarterback. But two of five or seven when OBJ is like kind of open and I feel like timing is part of chemistry, like isn't that a conversation that needs to be had the timing between these two. If you want to talk about rapport, if you want to talk about chemistry, if they're not like-- I don't know dialing up each other and playing Call of Duty, or whatever the kids do.
I feel like the timing is off and I don't think that is wholly on Baker because we have seen him click with Jarvis Landry, a different receiver 100%, a different type of receiver. But we have seen him click with other receivers. But the one that is the flashiest that has the most ceiling potential, there's issue.
MATT HARMON: Yeah. Now, there's Jeff-- there's something to it. I just can't quite put my finger on it and that's maybe what bugs me about it is I'm not willing-- maybe it's just like one of my weaknesses as an analyst. When I like can't explain something, I'm almost like willing to just not believe it's true.