On Sunday, a Baker Mayfield contract rumor swirled on social media, with former Browns star Joe Thomas claiming the quarterback turned down a $30 million/season offer last year.
“It seemed like Baker overplayed his hand a little bit,” Thomas said on The Thom and Hawk Football Show. “Because the interesting thing was at that moment, the Browns were out of the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes. And it seemed by all accounts that they were ready to do what it took to smooth things over with Baker.”
According to Cleveland Browns insider Mary Kay Cabot, though, the contract rumor is not true.
“That’s 100 percent false,” a league insider told cleveland.com.
It’s ‘100% false’ that Baker Mayfield turned down $30 million a year before ’21 from the #Browns; nothing imminent on the trade front: #Browns Insider https://t.co/ZlkW3KU6C0
— Mary Kay Cabot (@MaryKayCabot) March 28, 2022
Pro Football Talk, meanwhile, believes the truth could be somewhere in the middle.
From their story:
Based on what was known entering the 2021 season, he should have been aiming higher than $30 million per year. He’d just taken the Browns to the final eight, and he (and the Browns) gave the Chiefs everything they could handle in the divisional round of the playoffs. They did it again in Week One. Only after Mayfield injured his non-throwing shoulder while making a tackle after throwing a Week Two interception against the Texans did things start to go sideways for Mayfield.
Mayfield has a high degree of confidence in himself. It’s hardy implausible to think the Browns would have been willing to pay him $30 million, and that Mayfield stubbornly would have pressed for much more than that.
Regardless of what’s really true, Mayfield’s NFL future is now very unclear.
Mayfield is probably one of the 25-30 best starting quarterbacks in the NFL, but that doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed of a starting job.
For all his flaws, Baker Mayfield should still be starting QB in this league. https://t.co/ukpxGL4N6q
— Chris Broussard (@Chris_Broussard) March 27, 2022
Teams like the Panthers and Seahawks have been mentioned for Mayfield, but for now, no one is showing serious interest.
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