Rumor: Browns willing to pay more to trade Baker Mayfield to Carolina

The idea of Baker Mayfield being traded to the Carolina Panthers remains a hot topic and the Cleveland Browns are reportedly willing to pay more for it to happen

Baker Mayfield could be on the field with the Cleveland Browns in Week 1 of the 2022 season after all — it just won’t be as a member of their team.

Instead, he could be suiting up for the Carolina Panthers, which is the opponent Cleveland will face to kick off the new year. And, the Browns might even be willing to pay up to half his current salary to make this happen.

Earlier trade talks between the Browns and Panthers were said to have broken down due to Cleveland being unwilling to pay more than $3-4 million of Mayfield guaranteed $18.9 million deal. However, NFL Insider Albert Breer now says they could be willing to pay half of the contract — or more.

"“They’re willing to take on a fair amount of Baker’s salary. Like nine, 10 million dollars. So, like, for people out there who think that Cleveland’s holding on to Baker as Deshaun [Watson] insurance, they wouldn’t be offering to take on a pretty significant portion of the guy’s salary if they were looking to hold him until there’s more clarity in the Deshaun Watson case.” — Breer on The Rich Eisen Show"

It’s not surprising that the Browns would start to change their stance now. They never had any urgency to move Mayfield but now that training camp is approaching, it makes sense to try and bend in order to move on from the whole ordeal.

Baker Mayfield is never taking a snap for the Browns again

An interesting nugget here was that Breer felt the need to throw cold water on the notion that Cleveland is holding onto the quarterback in case Deshaun Watson is suspended for the entire season. Of course, anyone who has been paying attention should know this was never going to happen, but that story won’t slow down for some reason.

The relationship between Baker Mayfield and the Browns is damaged beyond repair, and that happened the moment they flew to Houston to meet with Watson. Even if Watson never landed in Cleveland, they were going to have to make a change.

As for the potential suspension, the Browns took care of themselves by adding Jacoby Brissett. He’s an experienced veteran who could arguably do a better job this season than Baker did in 2021 — due to his injury.

Throw all that together and the only way the Browns see Mayfield on the field this season is as an opponent — and it continues to look like that could be on the slate for Week 1.