Should Baker Mayfield be extended first?

The Cleveland Browns would surely love to keep Baker Mayfield, Denzel Ward, Nick Chubb, and Wyatt Teller but should they prioritize the quarterback?

Heading into the 2021 season, the Cleveland Browns have several players who are in need of a contract extension. Some such as Wyatt Teller and Nick Chubb are in the final year of their contracts whereas Baker Mayfield and Denzel Ward each have had their fifth-year options picked up, keeping them in town through 2022.

But does this mean the Browns should prioritize signing Chubb or Teller before looking at Ward or Mayfield? Usually, it would seem like an easy question as they should look to extend the player in the final year of their deal — but for a team that’s struggled for so long to find a quarterback, they might want to make sure they lock up No. 6 before anyone else.

However, that might not be the way the team sees it. And Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com agrees as she recently answered a question about extending these three stars, saying that the Cleveland front office might not feel any pressure to lock Mayfield up just yet.

"” With Mayfield and Ward having their fifth-year options for 2022 picked up last month, there’s no sense of urgency to extend them immediately. It doesn’t mean they won’t extend them this offseason, but there’s no pressure to do so. Chubb and Teller are both heading into the final year of their contracts, so it makes sense to try to get something done with them before the season, if possible.” — Cabot, Cleveland.com"

Cabot also says that the analytical-driven front office will likely try and get creative with Chubb’s extension since they’re probably not too keen on guaranteeing big money to a running back. Instead, she sees them using heavy incentives in the deal — and if Chubb remains healthy, he seems highly likely to hit any such stipulations.

As for Mayfield, waiting could be a bit of a risky game for them. As it stands now, Mayfield is coming off his most successful season but he still isn’t in a position to command top quarterback money.

His situation is similar to what the Dallas Cowboys had with Dak Prescott back in 2019 — and they played it about as poorly as they could. Dallas allowed Prescott to play out the final year of his deal rather than extending him for roughly $30 million per season. Sure, there’s no guarantee that would have been his price but at the time, that was the going rate.

Dallas elected to wait and then in 2020, they had to franchise tag him for $31 million. Prescott suffered a broken ankle but still proved in his short time on the field last year that he deserved a long-term contract and in the end, the Cowboys had to pay $160 million over four seasons.

So waiting cost them roughly $10 million per season. Cleveland could be in the same boat but the opposite argument is that they would feel better paying a higher premium if they were 100 percent sure Mayfield was a top-10 quarterback in the NFL. They also don’t seem like they will mess things up should Mayfield prove to be worth the money the way Dallas did with Prescott — so there’s some sense of relief in that regard.

There’s no “right” answer and whatever the Browns decide to do, there’s going to be questions raised. The good news is, they finally have a quarterback worthy of being extended, which is the real story here.