CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Something is wrong with this Browns offense and big part of the issue is something being wrong with Baker Mayfield. It appears the quarterback who broke the rookie touchdown record with decisive pocket throws, exceptional out-of-structure play-making and a propensity to fit the football into tight windows is somehow gone. He is replaced with a quarterback who is scrambling out of set pockets, unable to cope with chaos around him, and is forcing throws into coverage.

Figuring out the key issue appears to be an easy one, he is failing outside of structure. According to Sports Info Solutions, in 2018 Weeks (9-17), Mayfield went 18-27 for 268 yards, threw four touchdowns and just two interceptions. That was good for the league lead in completions, yards, and touchdowns all while tacking zero sacks. Now in 2019 it turns ugly. He is just 3-24 for 42 yards, zero touchdowns and interception and three sacks. One severe drop off without a doubt.

But out-of-structure work is not the end all for quarterback success. In reality it's but a small piece of a bigger puzzle. Many quarterbacks find success in the NFL without much success outside of the pocket. The problem is, however, that Mayfield is also struggling in the pocket as well. Mayfield is only completing 58 percent of his pocket throws and has a league-leading four interceptions. He has also taken 10 sacks. The massive problem exists in both phases and when that is happening, the quarterback performance struggles as a whole.

Now, the question becomes why is Mayfield struggling. The answer belongs to his eyes. While a weird sentence on its own, Mayfield's inability to get his eyes in the right place immediately post snap, and then working his eyes to the correct location in progressions display the biggest issue in his game during his second season.

Let's take a look at a few from Monday night's debacle to show you the opportunities being missed.

Throw No. 1 -- (13:49) (Shotgun) B.Mayfield pass deep right to R.Seals-Jones pushed ob at SF 27 for 31 yards (R.Sherman). San Francisco challenged the pass completion ruling, and the play was REVERSED. (Shotgun) B.Mayfield pass incomplete deep right to R.Seals-Jones (R.Sherman).

Mayfield's first drop back of the night Monday and it will present a missed opportunity. The Browns come out on 3rd and 13 in "11" personnel and have Ricky Seals-Jones aligned at X to the boundary. They are working a 3x1 trips scheme to attempt to hit a dig window. The 49ers play a disguised Cover-4 meant to look like Cover-2 with shallow corners.

When you watch Mayfield you will notice a good amount of pre-determining his eyes. He is getting the idea of what the coverage could be and making choices with his eyes pre-snap. The danger in that is it can leave your eyes in the wrong spot and missing passing windows. Off the snap Mayfield identifies the left side as his locked side and never feels the second level of coverage evacuate his window for the backside glance route.

Mayfield needs to quickly decipher the defense playing five over three to his three man side. If he notices the WILL linebacker vacate and the backside safety turn play-side, the window for his dig is open. Wrong eyes off the snap and a failure to work through post-snap movement means a route runs free. Mayfield fails to work from his first read to his second with a calm nature and the ability to deliver in the soft spot of coverage.

Now, Mayfield is dealing with pressure here, but all he has to do is slide right, reset, and deliver this ball. Instead he rushes out right, a common them in 2019, and throws a ball to Seals-Jones up the sideline after a scramble drill.

Here's a look at the full play from both angles.

Play No. 2 -- (11:16) (Shotgun) B.Mayfield sacked at CLV 6 for -9 yards (sack split by K.Alexander and K.Williams).

In this example we get the idea of Mayfield handling immediate pressure and needing to get his eyes right quickly to defeat it. The Browns are buried in their own end on a 3rd and seven. A likely blitz situation in which the 49ers do exactly that.

From "11" personnel Freddie Kitchens calls a scheme that gives Mayfield a clear out middle post, with a dig coming in behind it from the Z receiver. He also gives the young quarterback a quick dart route in front of his face in case pressure comes, and pressure does come. The 49ers bring six and overload the right side. This should be perfect for a drop off to the dart/shallow.

Instead, Mayfield is clearly hung up on the middle post from Jarvis Landry with his eyes locked deep middle. He never notices Harris coming free off the delayed pressure and this snap results in a sack. If Mayfield has his eyes right reading his "hot" throw, then this is an easy dump off over the middle for a nice opportunity to gain first down yardage with the linebacker turned and dropping underneath the post. Again, Mayfield has his eyes wrong from the snap and is too slow working from his initial read to his secondary option open underneath.

Here is a look at the full play views.

Play No. 3 -- (1:26) (Shotgun) B.Mayfield pass incomplete deep right to D.Ratley.

This one is situationally disturbing for a young quarterback. Mayfield has a 2nd and 10 situation here and his eyes and processing paint a rough picture. The Browns are aiming to run a high low on middle field coverage with a settle route and post from a bunch set. The scheme opens up well against the 49ers Cover-3.

The Browns get the perfect coverage for this scheme and actually have two perfect options for Mayfield post-snap. This is an example where his eyes take him to the correct place post-snap, but he fails to process it.

The lurk safety in this Cover-3 look is playing the hash and it leaves two open options for Mayfield. He can either dump this ball off to his settle for six easy second down yards, or he can drive the post to Odell Beckham in the middle field window. The end zone view gives an even better look.

The window for both throws are presented to Mayfield bit he decides against making these throws and settles for pushing out the pocket right for a poor scramble throw up the sideline. The eyes go with the right spot but Mayfield simply misses his reads here.

Here's a view from both angles to show you the windows missed.

Play No. 4 -- (12:10) (Shotgun) B.Mayfield sacked at CLV 6 for -10 yards (N.Bosa). FUMBLES (N.Bosa) [N.Bosa], recovered by CLV-G.Robinson at CLV 6. G.Robinson to CLV 6 for no gain (A.Armstead).

Another sack the Browns take that could have been easily avoided with the right processing from the quarterback. The 49ers play Cover-6 (Cover-4 to the field, Cover-2 to the boundary side). The route combination calls for a post/wheel to the boundary paired with backside dig routes of varying levels.

Mayfield simply has to process the 49ers have this post/wheel schemed up off the snap with three defenders over two. If he can process that quickly he can work to the backside dig to a vacated middle of the field. This process moves quickly but if the corner carries the wheel the quarterback has to quickly process the coverage. Mayfield fails here.

Mayfield has to quickly feel the 49ers depth and leverage then move to his second read on the dig. He hangs left far too long, missing Beckham over the middle in a spacious void and is sacked and fumbles. The end zone view shows the eyes and the window being missed quite clearly. Mayfield's eyes take too long to go from read one, to a wide open read two.

Here's the multi-angle full replay.

More issues in 2019

These issue are not just isolated to the 49ers game on Monday Night Football. The slow eyes and processing failures have been popping up on Mayfield in nearly every game.

Baltimore Week 4

Take last week against the Ravens as an example. Mayfield again gets a two-man route concept to his left paired with a backside dig. The Ravens run Cover-3 and this scheme is perfect to work to a backside dig.

The Ravens lurk safety, Earl Thomas, jumps the two-man side and again make the concept three over two. Once Mayfield feels this push play-side his eyes should naturally come back to his dig route over the middle from his tight end Seals-Jones. Look at the window.

Again the end zone view shows you how locked Mayfield is into read one without processing to read two and the open void left over the middle of the field at the second level once Thomas rolls to the play-side.

Here's the full replay of the incompletion and missed opportunity.

Jets Week 2

This play is known for the injury that cost David Njoku a broken wrist, but the biggest heartbreak on the play is how easily it could have been avoided. The Browns run from "11" personnel and look to work a drive concept from the three man side against the Jets late rotating Tampa-2 coverage.

Now, the Jets are moving around well to deceive post-snap, but Mayfield is slow working through his reads here. His eyes don't trust what he is seeing.

Mayfield actually has four route concepts he can choose from should he like what he is reading. He can hit Landry on the dig, Ratley up the sideline in the Cover-2 hole or the backside curl. Instead he sees the dig arrive open too late with his eyes and forces himself out of the pocket right and throws a dangerous ball to Njoku that gets the tight end hurt.

Here's the full view.

Titans Week 1

The opening game of 2019 didn't have many chance for big plays, but Mayfield missed one here. He is reading deep coverage off his play-action fake and has a corner route to his left and a "stab post" (corner/post) to his right. The Titans give a pre-snap Cover-3 look that turns into Man-Free (man underneath and a free safety roaming).

With the pre-snap safety squatting on the hash, it becomes a tell that he is going to sit on Beckham's stem/corner route here. Mayfield needs to come off the play-action, settle in the pocket while getting his eyes on that safety and make his read. The problem is he lingers too long on a bottled up Beckham and misses a shot play.

Rashard Higgins beats his man in coverage and the safety never leaves the far hash. Mayfield hangs on too long and when he arrives to Higgins the pressure has arrived. The goal here should be for Mayfield to quickly manipulate this safety with his eyes, pulling him left, then rip this ball up the hash to Higgins. The processing and eyes are too slow.

Here's the replay.

What is different from 2018?

Fair question. Everyone who watches the Browns notices a stark difference in the second-year quarterback from the 2018 version. Well, it starts with the processing, but it is also linked to the calm presence Mayfield had in his rookie season. He rarely felt panicked with pressure around him or when things needed to be worked from left to right in the pocket. He escaped when he needed to, and used his legs when teams left themselves vulnerable. Look at how these drop backs and processing feel different in three reps from 2018.

Final Thoughts

Mayfield is certainly not trusting his offensive line, and there's some merit to why that is happening. He has taken some hits from a group who has not protected all too well in both camp and regular season games. The Browns defensive line got after Mayfield in camp and his outside the pocket nature started to show at those points. I am sure the seed of distrust was planted at that point. He knew his offensive line would be worse without Kevin Zeitler, but the extent of which nobody knew. The right guard shuffle through the off-season didn't help and now Mayfield is left feeling panicked and distrusting what he is seeing.

This feeling of pocket flight is tough for a young quarterback and the game surely feels like it is going faster than it really is for Mayfield. I am sure he would tell you the same thing. This is a pivotal time for the young quarterback, though. He is truly a one read quarterback as it sits right now. Some of it can be attributed to scheme and some to poor isolated blocking snap to snap, but much of the blame lies with Mayfield.

Even though the offensive line lacks talent, it is far from the worst across the NFL. His instinct might be to distrust them, but he has to fight that urge and drop back each snap think they they will do their job. If he fails to do think that way, he will keep pushing himself out of clean pockets and his panicked nature, which is affecting his lower half, will keep causing him to fail to work read one to read two with any sense of calm and effectiveness.

The Browns offense has to get Mayfield going correctly in this department and much of it falls on Ryan Lindley, the quarterback coach, to help get Mayfield more effective in the pocket and get his eyes comfortable working where they need to work. Ken Zampese figured it out with Mayfield in 2018, and I refuse to think he is the ultimate quarterback guru or he would be on this staff.

Kitchens, and offensive coordinator Todd Monken, have to work diligently with Mayfield to make him understand the read to read processing and that coaching has to translate to the field. If we continue to see these sorts of missed opportunities this season will never become what so many projected, and there will be an ultimate price to pay.