Baker Mayfield and the 2018 QB class will get paid this offseason
You can start discussing the cost of keeping Baker Mayfield now.
Cleveland Browns fans can stop listening to the pseudo-experts recommending that the Browns draft a new quarterback for next season. Just who do you think you can get with the 32nd overall pick, or are you already planning for the Browns to lose in the playoffs? Now that the Bengals have knocked off Pittsburgh, do you still think the Steelers are invincible?
Instead, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and let’s talk about not if, but how much Baker Mayfield will sign for, and whether it will be more or less than the other 2018 draft class quarterbacks.
Other members of the ballyhooed class of 2018 include reigning NFL Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens and Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills. If you are curious about how many scratches the young quarterbacks will take home, we can compare this class with the pay of recent graduating classes. Their pay can be compared to the level of the stars of draft classes of 2016 (Jared Goff and Carson Wentz), as well as the draft class of 2017 (Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes).
Of course, the final answers will not be determined until the Super Bowl is played. Let’s make sure everyone is still healthy and take inventory to see if anyone is toting any Super Bowl trophies home for the winter. That will revise the numbers.
Covid-19 is the main wild card, because it is going to cause the salary cap to go down for the first time. Overthecap.com estimates it might drop from $198.2 million in 2020 down to about $176 million in 2021, a cutback of some 11 percent. That might cause the over salary scale to slide back a few notches. Some agents will take the news better than others.
Anti-fans and naysayers in all likelihood will not get their way. It’s not likely that the Browns will copy the stonewalling methods of Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys who was unable to come up with an agreement with superstar Dak Prescott, going the one-year Franchise Tag method instead. This is what to do if you want the team to be a big soap opera instead of concentrating on football.
QB Class of 2014 saw the largest contract in NFL history for Derek Carr
Going back a few years, when it was time to extend the contract of 2014 draftee Derek Carr, he was given the largest NFL contract up to that time, a five-year $25 million dollar extension which began in 2017.
Other draftees did not quite make it across the finish line, including Blake Bortles, whose performance was not consistent enough to earn the starting job at Jacksonville, and Teddy Bridgewater, who had a severe knee injury which threw his career into doubt for a few years. He has since been able to resume raining touchdown passes on opposing defenses. Another quarterback taken in that draft was Johnny Manziel. Any questions?
2015 was a weird draft because the first two picks were regarded as can’t-miss prospects in Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota. Neither played well enough to convince their employers to extend their contract. There are no salary numbers to contribute to the discussion. In that case, let’s look at the 2016 quarterback class, from which two quarterbacks were extended in 2019: Jared Goff and Carson Wentz.