Browns wide receiver Jarvis Landry set a record for the most catches by a player in his first five NFL seasons when he caught the 427th pass of his career in Week Five, but his statistical output in his first season in Cleveland is down from where it was in Miami.
Landry is on pace to catch 83 passes this season, which would be a career low, and the last three weeks have seen him catch 11 passes after opening the year with 20 receptions in the first three weeks. Landry has dropped some passes and said Thursday that he has to “stay out of the numbers” while keeping his attention on doing more to build his relationship with rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield.
“I’ve just got to keep my head focused on the task at hand and make the plays when they come,” Mayfield said, via Cleveland.com. “That’s the biggest thing. ... [Mayfield] puts that on himself, but I do think that he throws a lot of catchable balls.To take some of that away from him, I have to do a better job of catching them more and making the plays for him. I’m working really hard at that, trying to do that and trying to earn more and more of his trust every day in practice.”
The Browns don’t have established receivers outside of Landry, which leads to defenses doing what they can to take him out of games and forcing Damion Ratley or Antonio Callaway to make plays to beat them. That makes it all the more important for Landry to make the plays that come his way in Tampa this weekend and in the other games to come.