3 Winners and losers from Baker Mayfield trade

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.

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.

Winner: Baker Mayfield

Giving up $3.5 million might not sound like a win at first, but for Mayfield, it was.

When Cleveland added Deshaun Watson, it was evident he wasn’t coming back and while he could have fought tooth and nail for the entire $18.8 million, he understood he could have lost even more had he not gotten into a camp soon to be able to earn a starting job.

By playing in 2022, he has an opportunity to prove he deserves a big payday this coming offseason. Had he declined to take the cut in salary, he might have found himself without a team, thus hurting his stock in 2023 free agency.

As we have seen him do in the past, Mayfield is betting on himself by taking this cut and he’s often won when doing so.

Loser: Sam Darnold

Back in 2018, Darnold was supposed to be the No. 1 pick in the draft. But then, Mayfield came out firing and said he was the man to turn the Browns around.

Former general manager John Dorsey agreed, and the Oklahoma product was selected first overall. Sadly for Darnold, this wouldn’t be the last time he tasted defeat at the hands of the former walk-on-turned-Heisman winner.

In Week 3 of their rookie campaign, Mayfield came in and led the Browns to a Thursday Night Football win over Darnold and his Jets.

Now, it could happen again as it appears Darnold is going to lose his starting job to Mayfield. It has to be frustrating, but the former USC product has no one to blame but himself since he was unable to secure his job in two different cities now.

Winner: Everyone following the Browns

When Cleveland landed Watson, they knew he was likely to be suspended for much of the 2022 season. This is why they also went after Jacoby Brissett and Josh Dobbs, to make sure they were as deep as possible in order to brace for such a suspension.

Even so, there seems to be this nonsensical idea that the Browns are about to be blindsided by a long suspension, therefore they should reach out to Mayfield and ask him nicely to come back.

This made such little sense that it was painful to consider.

First, this team was done with Mayfield the minute 2021 was over — and anyone paying attention could see that. Second, there’s no way Mayfield’s mentality would have allowed him to return to the team that openly courted Watson while he was recovering from shoulder surgery.

With him now in Carolina, everyone can move on and the worst suggestion of the offseason can finally go away as well.

Loser: Robbie Anderson

He’s trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube now, but that’s not always an easy thing to do.

When the rumors started to fly that Mayfield could be headed to Carolina, Robbie Anderson voiced his displeasure by responding “Nooooo” to a post suggesting the rumor would come true. Now that it has, Anderson is accusing others of trying to “paint” a narrative that he himself started.

Anderson can say all he wants the media is spinning this but he gave his unsolicited opinion on Mayfield joining the Panthers. By doing so, he puts himself in a spot where a very emotionally-driven quarterback is highly likely to be deciding whether or not the ball goes his way.