3 Winners and losers from Baker Mayfield trade
By Randy Gurzi
The Cleveland Browns and Carolina Panthers finally agreed to a trade sending Baker Mayfield to a new team. Now let’s look at the winners and losers of the deal.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Baker Mayfield saga finally came to an end.
The Cleveland Browns agreed to trade Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers and in the end, the Panthers only had to surrender a conditional fifth-round pick in 2024. On top of that, the Browns ate more than $10 million with Mayfield surrendering $3.5 million in the process.
That left Carolina on the hook for just $5 million, which is about what they wanted to pay all along. Now that all the details are out, we can look at the trade and select some winners and losers in the latest quarterback shuffle.
3 winners and losers from Baker Mayfield trade
Winner: Rashard Higgins
Rashard Higgins spent his entire career with the Browns before heading to Carolina this offseason. He wasn’t a lock to make the team, but the addition of Mayfield will actually help him in that regard.
Mayfield and Higgins have always had a solid rapport, going back to the 2018 season when No. 6 was a rookie.
Something seemed to always keep Higgins in the dog house with the Browns but now that he has a fresh start — as well as a quarterback he knows well — he could end up having a better season than expected.
Loser: Panthers chances at limiting turnovers
Mayfield heading to Carolina means the No. 1 and No. 3 pick from the 2018 NFL Draft will be on the same team. Considering neither are with the clubs that selected them, this might not be the best thing.
More proof of this comes from a tweet by the NFL Network which says the new duo under center in Carolina are actually No. 1 and No. 2 in the league in interceptions since that 2018 season.
Who should be QB1 in Carolina? (via @NFLtotalaccess) pic.twitter.com/tdNDvsW29Q
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) July 6, 2022
Darnold had 13 picks in 12 games last season and while the Panthers would surely like to clean that up in 2022, the odds are not in their favor.
The good news is, Mayfield did prove in 2020 that he can limit the picks, meaning there’s a chance. On top of that, he does throw a lot more touchdowns than Darnold, which does make it easier to live with the turnovers.