Inside Baker Mayfield's Split With The Cleveland Browns - ESPN

• Jake TrotterJul 7, 2022, 02:00 AMClose
  Jake Trotter is a senior writer at ESPN. Trotter covers college football. He also writes about other college sports, including men's and women's basketball. Trotter resides in the Cleveland area with his wife and three kids and is a fan of his hometown Oklahoma City Thunder. He covered the Cleveland Browns and NFL for ESPN for five years, moving back to college football in 2024. Previously, Trotter worked for the Middletown (Ohio) Journal, Austin American-Statesman and Oklahoman newspapers before joining ESPN in 2011. He's a 2004 graduate of Washington and Lee University. You can reach out to Trotter at [email protected] and follow him on X at @Jake_Trotter.
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Editor's note: This was originally published May 5 and has been updated after Wednesday's news the Browns have traded Baker Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers.

BEREA, Ohio -- The NFL draft came and went, and quarterback Baker Mayfield was still a member of the Cleveland Browns.

The Browns couldn't swing a trade with the Carolina Panthers at the time, and according to multiple sources, never got close. As talks intensified during the second round, sources said Carolina wanted Cleveland to pay a significant portion of Mayfield's guaranteed $19 million salary next season. The Browns balked and Carolina traded up into the third round to draft Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral.

The trade talks resumed this offseason and Mayfield was traded to the Panthers on Wednesday in exchange for a conditional draft pick, a source confirmed to ESPN. The Panthers will pay $4.85 million of Mayfield's salary while the Browns will pay $10.5 million. The deal is pending a physical.

In 2018, Mayfield arrived in Cleveland, a city that has been searching for a franchise quarterback since the Bernie Kosar era of the 1980s, with enormous fanfare. But after quarterbacking the Browns to their first playoff victory in 26 years in 2020, his standing with the front office and locker room declined. Struggles on the field, a messy split with receiver Odell Beckham Jr. that divided the team, quarterback Deshaun Watson's willingness to waive his no-trade clause to join Cleveland, and a perceived slight from the Browns' front office all contributed to effectively end Mayfield's time in Cleveland, pushing both sides to seek a fresh start.

In March, the Browns traded for Watson. Since March 16, 2021, 25 lawsuits have been filed against Watson, alleging sexual assault and other inappropriate behavior during massage sessions. Of those 25, one was dropped by the plaintiff when the judge ruled her petition had to be amended with her name. Twenty of those civil suits, attorney Tony Buzbee said, have been settled. Four remain and they will be tried after the 2022 season. Two grand juries in Texas declined to indict Watson on criminal charges, but the NFL has been pushing for a suspension of at least a year. Watson's hearing before the NFL and the NFL Players Association's jointly appointed disciplinary officer, Sue L. Robinson, finished after three days last week. There is no timetable for Robinson's decision. Watson said he has "never assaulted, disrespected or harassed any woman" and that he had planned to fight the lawsuits before most of them were settled.

In last season's opener against the Kansas City Chiefs, Mayfield looked like the passer who had finished the 2020 season ranked No. 10 in QBR. The Browns scored touchdowns on their first three possessions before finally coming up short on Mayfield's game-ending interception.

But in Week 2 against the Texans, Mayfield suffered a torn labrum in his left -- non-throwing -- shoulder.

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