Daily Dawg Tags: How Baker Mayfield revived Deshaun Watson trade
By Randy Gurzi
The Daily Dawg Tags bring you all the Cleveland Browns news you need to know, including a look at how Baker Mayfield revived the Deshaun Watson trade
It was a whirlwind week for the Cleveland Browns who were able to somehow land Deshaun Watson — despite the fact that he originally said they were out of the running. Now that the move is official, more stories are coming out including how Cleveland was content to turn back to Baker Mayfield when they first heard Watson was out.
However, Mayfield made it known that he wasn’t okay with being the fallback plan and that led to a belief he would boycott the team altogether. With that being the case, Cleveland continued to push with Watson and once the Atlanta Falcons discussions broke down, a shocker commenced as the controversial quarterback was headed to northeast Ohio.
The story on how Baker Mayfield revived this trade and more can be found in today’s Daily Dawg Tags.
Cleveland Browns News
"“Mayfield wasn’t going to tolerate an effort to supplant him. You can call that whatever you want — competitive, immature, territorial, shrewd, gutsy, impractical — but it was obvious based on what we’ve seen and heard from Mayfield that the last thing he would do is shrug and keep going.Thus, the Browns had to keep going for Watson. And they got him.”"
In all honesty, Cleveland was probably going to land Watson anyway after he and the Falcons broke off communications. The team was just more motivated to get things done once they realized they weren’t going to have a happy Mayfield to turn to.
"“The legacy of it all: There was little doubt in anyone’s mind that this was a moment of disruption for the mega-contracts reserved for the most elite quarterbacks. It could ripple with other top players, too — which, in the kindest analysis, was poorly received elsewhere.”"
Cleveland gave Watson a fully-guaranteed $230 million and Robinson says it was not received well by some teams. Of course, this is understandable because there will now be several young quarterbacks who want their club to offer similar contracts in order to secure them for the long haul.
Cleveland Browns are now a destination for free agents
The new quarterback in Cleveland might be controversial but it already seems as though players are more interested in joining the team. Perhaps having an elite quarterback will make the Browns a destination team for free agents.
3 next steps now that Browns have Deshaun Watson. dark. Next
Browns just improved their backup quarterback situation
Knowing their starting quarterback could be suspended for some time this season, Cleveland went out and got better at the reserve spot. In a matter of minutes, they sent Case Keenum to the Buffalo Bills and then signed Jacoby Brissett, which feels like an upgrade.