The Cleveland Browns have had a whirlwind of an offseason. They entered it unsure of how things would play out at the quarterback position with Baker Mayfield as their starter, but they eventually found their answer.
Seemingly at the last hour, they won the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes. Cleveland acquired him from the Houston Texans in exchange for a boatload of draft picks. In the process, they agreed to a five-year, $230 million deal. They don’t even know if he will be playing in 2022 as his legal issues play out, but they safeguarded the contract so that he will only lose about $1 million if he is in fact suspended.
In most circumstances, that would qualify as the shadiest move of the offseason for an organization. But, how the Browns handled the situation with Baker Mayfield would certainly be in the running.
No matter what your opinion of Mayfield is as a player, everyone can agree on the fact that Cleveland couldn’t have handled this any worse. Yes, the NFL is a business, but these are still human beings whose livelihoods are at stake. No one is going to feel bad for Mayfield, who is set to make $18.8 million this season, but how he was treated is certainly going to be seen in a negative light by others around the league.
At this point in time, the relationship is too far gone for there to be any repairing of it. The Browns need to do the right thing and just cut Mayfield, which is what Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk believes they should do.
“The right thing to do in this specific case is to cut Mayfield and move on. It’s in his best interests, and it’s in the team’s best interests — even if the Chief Strategy Officer fails to see it.”
With how much quarterback movement there was this offseason, Cleveland would have had no problem finding a new team for Mayfield. But, because things dragged along so slowly with their other moves, Mayfield is now stuck without many options that would lead to him having a starting job in 2022.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft is a sunk cost at this point. There is no reason to drag things out any longer. Let Mayfield pick his next team and get to work as soon as possible so he can try and earn some playing time this season before hitting free agency in 2023.
