3 potential landing spots for Baker Mayfield in 2022
By Greg Newland
The Cleveland Browns were a quarterback away in 2021 from making the playoffs. Will the organization push to make a change next year and move on from Baker Mayfield?
The Cleveland Browns have a lot of difficult decisions to make this offseason. While the defense played well (at times), the offense completely underperformed to expectations.
The main question that hinges the offense right now? What will Andrew Berry and Kevin Stefanski do with Baker Mayfield? Those two people may have some inclination, but I don’t think anybody is sold on a solution just yet.
Mayfield suffered a fairly serious shoulder injury in Week 2 of the regular season in 2021. Not wanting to let his team down, Mayfield played the entire season with the injury and a brace on his non-throwing shoulder.
There were times when you could tell the injury was a major contributor to why he was struggling, but there were also a lot of bad decisions made in 2021 that weren’t affected by his bad shoulder.
Mayfield is now coming off shoulder surgery and set to enter the fifth-year option of his rookie deal. Many anticipated he would get an extension before this offseason, but a backpedal in performance from the end of the 2020 season has halted all negotiations.
While I struggle to see a better option (for the 2022 season) without giving up a ton of assets, it’s a scenario that the Cleveland Browns must explore. We can’t ignore Mayfield threw for only 3,010 yards and 17 touchdowns while racking up 13 interceptions. The yardage and touchdowns are the least in a season of his four-year career.
I know the shoulder was an issue, but this roster is so close to competing for a Super Bowl that Mayfield playing for another team in 2022 is a scenario that isn’t that farfetched. Here are three teams that could be interested.