On Thursday night, Browns coach Hue Jackson bristled at any suggestion that his team stole the receiver pass to quarterback Baker Mayfield from the Eagles. On Friday, Eagles coach Doug Pederson made it clear that he’s not claiming any ownership of the play.
“Oh, man, that play has been run a bunch,” Pederson told reporters. “It is a great football play, and it was exciting to see it last night, and for Hue, obviously, and [Browns offensive coordinator] Todd [Haley] to call the play and just the execution of it, of course it went the other direction. It’s great to see. It’s great to see plays like that being used, and it’s a widely used play. When you go back and look at the history of that play, I mean, it goes all the way back, as you saw the report last weekend I think by Sal [Paolantonio], even high school teams are running it. It’s a great play.”
It is indeed a great play. The Browns went right to left instead of left to right. Like Nick Foles in Super Bowl LII, Mayfield didn’t receive the snap, walking forward and to the side, pretending to try to communicate with the left side (Foles went to the right side) of the offensive line as the ball was snapped to Duke Johnson.
Pederson also acknowledged that Mayfield ran the play at Oklahoma, before the Eagles made it known as the Philly Special.
“He could probably coach it up,” Pederson said.
Mayfield probably could. After all, he participated in it last night despite never practicing Cleveland’s version of it, since the practice reps had gone to Tyrod Taylor.