I’m getting tired of writing about Baker Mayfield at this point, but the good news is, perhaps, I won’t have him to write about for much longer. The former first overall pick of the 2018 NFL Draft continues to dominate headlines in the AFC North surrounding his increasingly messy breakup with the Cleveland Browns, which now appears more inevitable than ever.
You know the bulk of the outline by now. Amid brewing animosity for the past season or more, the Browns aggressively pursued veteran quarterback options in the early portions of this offseason. It is believed that Mayfield was informed at some level, but it doesn’t appear that he was told specifically that they were going to go after Deshaun Watson.
Watson agreed to waive his no-trade clause for the Browns yesterday after originally ruling him out, in between which a source leaked that Cleveland was looking for “an adult” at the quarterback position, and Mayfield formally requested his trade. At the time, the team issued a statement saying they won’t accommodate his request.
They’re going to accommodate the crap out of it now, though. They pretty much have to, because they’re going to need his $18 million-plus in salary cap space, which is fully guaranteed, so they have to trade him to get it off their books, unless they can catch him gambling on NFL games.
According to an ESPN article published yesterday—which originally ran prior to the Watson news—it is said that Mayfield was still fully committed to the Browns as of about a week ago. his relationship with the team, however, has suffered irreparable harm since then.
The article from Jake Trotter also states that it was the fact Mayfield learned of their aggressive pursuit of Watson via social media, rather than having somebody with the team discuss it with him directly, that was the source of his frustration.
“They didn’t inform Baker ahead of time, just as a courtesy”, Trotter cites one source for his article as saying, adding that the fact that it played out in public was “very insulting” and that it “really angered Baker”.
He goes on to say that “the breaking moment” was indeed that ESPN report from Chris Mortensen, in which he cited a source within the Browns organization who specifically used the term “an adult” when discussing what they were looking for at the quarterback position. Afterwards, he insisted that this was indeed the term that source used, but added that others within the organization disputed that was their thinking.
The good news for the Browns is that they don’t have to worry about Mayfield’s hurt feelings anymore, because they got the quarterback they wanted, and they gave him everything they weren’t ever going to be willing to give the man they drafted first overall just four years ago.
The question now is, where will he wind up? Perhaps one of the teams that traded their quarterback, such as Seattle or Indianapolis? Those feel like the most likely destinations.
