In retrospect, it seems like the Panthers were the team that wanted Baker Mayfield most all along. Today they finally closed the deal and traded for the Browns’ former franchise quarterback.
According to a report by Ian Rapoport at NFL Network, Carolina and Cleveland have agreed to a deal that sends Mayfield to the Panthers and a fifth-round pick back to the Browns.
A new QB in Carolina: The #Panthers are acquiring former No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield from the #Browns for a 2024 conditional 5th-round draft pick, sources tell me and @TomPelissero. Deal is pending a physical. All parties split the financials to make it happen. pic.twitter.com/xuTLqosmZm
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 6, 2022
Cleveland won’t get off that easy, though. They’ll also have to eat over half of Mayfield’s 2022 salary, which is fully guaranteed.
According to Mike Garafolo at NFL Network, the Browns will pay $10.5 million of his salary this year. Meanwhile, the Panthers will only have to pay $5 million as Mayfield agreed to wave $3.5 million off his base.
More: The #Browns will pay Baker Mayfield $10.5 million this season, which means they trimmed over $8 million in cash and salary-cap space. The #Panthers will pay Mayfield ~$5 million. Mayfield agreed to trim ~$3.5 million off his base salary.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) July 6, 2022
That’s a pretty good deal for the Panthers, who would have had to decide between Sam Darnold and Matt Corral as their starter for their first game this coming season – which incidentally will come against Cleveland.
As for the Seahawks, they were rumored to be interested in Mayfield throughout this process. However, that seems like it was a ploy by team Mayfield in order to get Carolina to bite on a deal. While it made some sense for Seattle, there was never any smoking gun report regarding any serious interest.
Now there’s only one other option for the Seahawks if they’re not content to roll into the 2022 season with Drew Lock and Geno Smith competing for the QB1 job. The only other QB who might wind up playing for a different team this year is Jimmy Garoppolo. The 49ers won’t be trading him to Seattle, so they’d have to release Garoppolo in order for that to happen.
Mayfield was always a more realistic target, though. Odds are this news means it’ll be Lock or Smith under center against Denver come Week 1.
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