Baker Mayfield

Latest On Browns’ OBJ Agreement

November 6th, 2021 at 6:54pm CST by Sam Robinson

After a turbulent week, the Browns and Odell Beckham Jr. agreed to separate. The disgruntled wide receiver is not set to be waived until Monday, but he did not practice this week and is effectively done as a member of the Browns. It took some negotiating to complete this transaction.

A Friday agreement paved the way to the sides’ impending divorce, and some interesting details surfaced regarding Beckham’s status Saturday. While the Browns tweaked Beckham’s deal to make him a 2022 free agent (instead of a 2024 UFA, which the wideout’s Giants-constructed contract previously called for), his salary if he is claimed on waivers would go unchanged. A team that is awarded Beckham on waivers would be hit with the receiver’s $7.25MM in remaining salary. Beyond that, Cleveland made more changes.

If no one claims Beckham, the Browns will only be on the hook for $4.25MM of that salary, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. The Browns converted some of Beckham’s salary into a roster bonus, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes. The NFLPA signed off on Cleveland’s restructure, CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora tweets.

The bonus would be another team’s responsibility if it claims OBJ, increasing the likelihood he will go unclaimed Tuesday. Claims are due by 3pm CT Tuesday. Beckham will lose out on that $3MM bonus if no team claims him, further illustrating his desire to hit free agency. The Browns trimming years off the contract and using a roster bonus stands to help OBJ while saving the team some cash.

The Browns could have converted much of Beckham’s salary to a signing bonus, reducing the base to the point it would increase the likelihood a team claims him. This ran the risk of Beckham being claimed by a team near the top of the waiver priority list, a scenario the scuffling wideout almost certainly wants to avoid. The nature of this restructure also increases the chances Beckham will end up with a contender of his choosing.

AFC teams like the Chiefs, Patriots or Raiders could show interest, but NFC squads are also preparing to pursue him. The 49ers, Saints and Seahawks are expected to show interest in Beckham, in the likely event he hits free agency Tuesday afternoon. The Raiders also appear to prefer DeSean Jackson to Beckham. The Saints made a series of calls on receivers — Beckham and Darius Slayton among them — at the deadline, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com notes. New Orleans’ lack of a proven quarterback figures to hurt its chances, however. Beckham was also intrigued by the 49ers a while back, Fowler adds. The 49ers were linked to Beckham via trade before the Browns acquired him in 2019.

OBJ has pocketed a considerable amount of cash over the course of his career, but he turned 29 this week and has seen his value crater in Cleveland. The former Giants Pro Bowler has been unable to consistently show that form with the Browns, with injuries and a limited rapport with Baker Mayfield impacting this decline. None of OBJ’s issues in Cleveland stemmed from off-field matters, according to ESPN.com’s Jake Trotter, who adds Beckham and Mayfield were not at odds off the field. But on it, the two failed to click for most of the three-time Pro Bowler’s three-year Cleveland stay.

Browns’ Baker Mayfield On Odell Beckham Jr.

November 3rd, 2021 at 3:01pm CST by Zachary Links

Everyone in the Browns locker room wants to see Odell Beckham Jr. succeed, according to Baker Mayfield (Twitter link via Kimberley A. Martin of ESPN.com). The quarterback wants to iron out the ongoing rift between him and OBJ, though he says he’s keeping his focus on the field.

“Yeah i think any conversation would go a long way,” Mayfield said (Twitter links) “[As for a] resolution? I don’t know about that right now. [But], if he’s back, we’ll work through it and I can put my ego and pride aside to win.”

OBJ’s camp stirred the pot on Tuesday with a pair of viral posts on social media. First, Beckham’s father posted a highlight reel of miscommunications between his son and Mayfield. Then, LeBron James chimed in, seemingly urging the Browns to trade his friend before the deadline. One day later, Beckham is still in Cleveland, though he’s absent from practice with a “personal matter”.

Mayfield isn’t sure when he’ll touch base with Beckham, but Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski and GM Andrew Berry chatted with his agent earlier today. Beckham has no remaining guarantees on his contract, so the Browns could cut him in early 2022 with zero cap penalty. But, if the situation can’t be salvaged, they could consider releasing him right now. With the trade deadline in the rear view mirror, that would put one of the game’s most gifted talents on the waiver wire, available for all 31 teams.

Browns Likely To Be Quiet At Trade Deadline

October 31st, 2021 at 12:19pm CST by Rory Parks

The Browns, currently sitting at 4-3 and in third place in the AFC North, are not expected to swing a major deal in advance of Tuesday’s trade deadline, according to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. Cabot does not anticipate the club acquiring a high-profile talent or trading one away.

Wide receiver Odell Beckham became the subject of trade speculation even before his first season in Cleveland was over, and those rumors have continued to crop up ever since. The Browns have done their best to quash all such rumblings, and Beckham will likely stay put at least through the end of the 2021 campaign. After all, he is dealing with a painful sprain in his right shoulder, and he is still owed $9MM over the rest of the season, so even if Cleveland were interesting in making a trade, there are obvious hurdles.

Plus, the Browns have every reason to keep Beckham around. Although he and QB Baker Mayfield have yet to develop a consistent rapport, OBJ continues to get open and remains an elite talent, so it would be surprising to see a Cleveland outfit that has postseason aspirations make that type of trade.

The same logic applies to tight ends David Njoku and Austin Hooper. Neither player has offered much production in 2021 — aside from a monster Week 5 game for Njoku that accounted for over half of his 2021 receiving yards and his only touchdown — but the hope is that the passing game will improve as the season goes on, just as it did last year. Njoku is playing on an expiring contract and requested a trade on several occasions last summer, but his most recent comments on the matter suggested that he would like to remain in Cleveland, and Cabot expects both him and Hooper to still be Browns once the deadline has passed.

Speaking of Mayfield, Cabot says the No. 1 overall pick of the 2018 draft will likely require offseason surgery on his injured shoulder. His injury has complicated extension talks, and now, if an extension is reached, it probably won’t happen until after the season. Mayfield is under club control through 2022 via the fifth-year option of his rookie deal, which the Browns exercised earlier this year.

In related news, Cleveland does have starting RT Jack Conklin back in action for today’s critical matchup with the Steelers. Conklin had missed the prior two games with a knee injury.

Browns QB Baker Mayfield Dealing With Fractured Shoulder Bone

October 24th, 2021 at 7:37am CST by Ben Levine

Oct. 24: According to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, swelling in Mayfield’s shoulder has made it impossible for the fourth-year passer to sufficiently rehab the injury. He is in danger of missing the club’s Week 8 matchup against the Steelers, and because a harness alone may not prevent further damage if Mayfield is hit from behind and unable to adequately protect himself, he could be sidelined even longer than that.

Keenum — who navigated the team to a 17-14 victory over the Broncos on Thursday night — will obviously continue to get the nod in Mayfield’s absence.

Oct. 21: Baker Mayfield‘s shoulder injury sounds like it’s more serious than initially thought. Jay Glazer of FOX reports (via Twitter) that the Browns quarterback fractured the humerus bone in his shoulder.

While it’s uncertain when Mayfield suffered the injury, it occurred when his shoulder popped out of its socket, which vicariously caused the fracture. The quarterback suffered a shoulder injury back in mid-September, but he reportedly aggravated the injury during the Browns’ loss to the Cardinals on Sunday. The fracture is limiting Mayfield’s rotator cuff, per Glazer, and that led to the QB being inactive for tonight’s game against the Broncos.

“I need that fracture to heal for me to get back out there,” Mayfield told Glazer (Twitter link). The QB is still hoping that his return will come next weekend, but that will depend on how quickly the fracture heals.

After being listed as inactive tonight, Mayfield will officially miss his first game since taking over as the Browns starting quarterback in 2018. The QB had started each of Cleveland’s first six games this season, completed 67.1-percent of his passes for 1,474 yards, six touchdowns, and three interceptions.

The Browns have backup Case Keenum under center in Mayfield’s stead, and the veteran will likely continue starting as long as Mayfield is out of the lineup.

QB Case Keenum To Start For Browns Tomorrow

October 20th, 2021 at 6:44pm CST by Ben Levine

Baker Mayfield will officially miss his first game since taking over as the Browns starting quarterback in 2018. The Browns announced that they’ll be without their starting QB tomorrow against the Broncos. Cleveland will have backup Case Keenum under center.

Keenum will have a chance to start against his former team, as the veteran started all 16 games for Denver back in 2018. He went 1-7 in eight starts with Washington in 2019, but he still got a three-year, $18MM deal from the Browns in 2020. In one-plus seasons with the team, the 33-year-old has seen time in four games, completing six of his 13 pass attempts for 52 yards.

“We have full confidence in him to lead us and do the things necessary to put us in position to win,” coach Kevin Stefanski said of Keenum. “Baker fought really hard to play, he’s a competitor and obviously wants to be out there but just couldn’t make it on a short week. We know he will continue to do everything in his power to return as quickly as possible.”

Mayfield suffered a shoulder injury back in mid-September, but he’s continued to play through the injury. He aggravated the injury during the Browns’ loss to the Cardinals on Sunday, and ESPN’s Jake Trotter writes that Mayfield was advised not to play by both team doctors and his own personal doctor.

Earlier this week, Mayfield clarified that he wouldn’t see the field if he ever thought he’d be hurting his team’s chances.

“Only I know how my body feels,” Mayfield said (via Trotter). “If anyone questions whether I am hindering the team and going out there injured, that’s just not right. It’s my decision. I get to say whether I am able to play or not, and that’s just how it is.”

QB Baker Mayfield, Browns Haven’t Had “Substantive Extension Talks”

September 8th, 2021 at 8:01pm CST by Ben Levine

The Browns’ season opener is only days away, but it doesn’t sound like the organization is any closer to extending Baker Mayfield. Cleveland’s front office and Mayfield’s reps still haven’t engaged in “substantive extension talks,” per Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com.

This isn’t a huge surprise, as Cabot notes that “this has been the plan all along” and both sides are “cool” with the timing. On the flip side, it’s a bit surprising that the two sides haven’t at least swapped different variations of an extension. It was assumed that the two sides would be able to proceed on negotiations after Josh Allen inked his new deal with the Bills, but there haven’t been any developments in Cleveland since early August.

From Mayfield’s perspective, it makes some sense to wait on a new deal. After all, the former first-overall pick is already locked into his $18.85MM salary for 2022. If Mayfield takes another step this upcoming season, he could command a new contract that pays north of $40MM per season. His track record probably doesn’t warrant that demand at the moment.

The former No. 1 overall pick finished second in the 2018 Offensive Rookie of the Year voting but regressed in 2019. After the Oklahoma product bounced back in 2020, the Browns may be willing to see if he can keep that momentum going to start this season before committing. For what it’s worth, Mayfield recently made it clear that he didn’t mind negotiating during the upcoming season, so one of the sides could end up blinking in the upcoming weeks.

Baker Mayfield Fine With Negotiations Continuing Into Season

August 8th, 2021 at 10:34pm CST by Sam Robinson

Josh Allen became the 2018 class’ first contract domino to fall, signing a monster extension with the Bills. This provides a clearer road map for Lamar Jackson and Baker Mayfield.

While Jackson and Allen have thus far ascended to high higher peaks than Mayfield, who has yet to secure his first Pro Bowl invite, the Bills’ extension decision stands to help his cause. Browns GM Andrew Berry attempted to downplay the impact Allen’s $43MM-per-year extension will have on Mayfield talks, though the Bills quarterback’s deal will certainly factor into the Browns’ equation.

The Browns could wait, but Allen provides yet another example of teams locking in QBs ahead of their fourth seasons. Dak Prescott represents the outlier here from recent years, and the Cowboys did not exactly benefit from their wait. The NFL now having a third $40MM-per-year player, with Allen joining Prescott and Patrick Mahomes, stands to benefit other passers.

“I’m worried about winning. I think the rest will take care of itself,” Mayfield said, via the Akron Beacon Journal’s Nate Ulrich, on Allen’s contract’s potential effect on his situation. “It’s good for the quarterback position overall. I’d be lying if we said otherwise, but I’m worried about winning right now. I don’t know the timeline on it. We haven’t talked about it because I’m worried about winning this season.”

Since the 2016 draft class became eligible for new deals in 2019, six QBs have signed big-ticket extensions. Five of those — Mahomes, Allen, Deshaun Watson, Carson Wentz and Jared Goff — agreed to terms in the summer before their fourth seasons. Russell Wilson and Ryan Tannehill did the same from the 2012 class. Extending Nick Chubb and discussing a deal with Denzel Ward, the Browns are taking care of their other core pieces ahead of what could be a tricky negotiation with Mayfield.

The former No. 1 overall pick finished second in the 2018 Offensive Rookie of the Year voting but regressed in 2019. After the Oklahoma product bounced back in 2020, the Browns may be willing to see if he can keep that momentum going to start this season before committing. Mayfield does not plan to set a hard deadline on negotiations this year.

“I’m not doing the negotiations, so quite frankly, I don’t give a damn,” Mayfield said on negotiating in-season. “I’m worried about winning Week 1 and going onto Week 2 and focusing on that week one week at a time. That’s my mindset, so no matter how many times I get asked this question throughout the year, it’s going to be the same answer because that’s just the truth.”

With Allen’s deal done, the focus will shift to Mayfield and the self-represented Jackson. Mayfield should be expected to join the $40MM-AAV club, Ulrich estimates. The former Heisman winner’s uneven start to his career injects intrigue into this situation, as does the Browns’ near-20-year struggle finding a quarterback between their relaunch and Mayfield’s arrival. Mayfield is signed through 2022 and set to make just $920K in base salary this year.

Latest On Baker Mayfield, Denzel Ward

August 8th, 2021 at 11:04am CST by Rory Parks

We heard at the end of June that the Browns were “working on” an extension for cornerback Denzel Ward, and it sounds like that has become the top item on the team’s agenda. According to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com (via Twitter), Cleveland and Ward are actively discussing a new deal now that RB Nick Chubb has put pen to paper on an extension of his own.

Ward, a 2018 first-round choice, saw his fifth-year option for 2022 exercised earlier this year, so player and team do have some time to hash things out. Of course, the Browns have Ward’s draftmate, quarterback Baker Mayfield, looking for a new contract as well, and it sounds as if Cleveland is at least trying to get everything else off its plate before digging in on the inherently more complex QB negotiations.

Indeed, Fowler adds that talks with Mayfield have not yet heated up. As soon as Josh Allen signed his mega-deal with the Bills, the NFL world turned its attention to Mayfield and the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson, but Cleveland GM Andrew Berry downplayed the impact that Allen’s contract would have on Mayfield’s situation.

“I think for really any player or any positional market, we’re always aware of the deals that have been done over the past couple years and certainly any deals that come up over the next couple weeks because we realize that impacts the market to some degree,” Berry said (via Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz of the Akron Beacon Journal). “But at the same time with any player that we’re considering extending, we really deal with it on a case-by-case and individual level. We really operate within the parameters that we think make sense for our organization and our team, and that’s what we’ll continue to do really across positions.”

That’s generally what one would expect a GM to say, but we also heard back in June that, if Allen and Jackson landed contracts paying them north of $40MM per year — and now that Allen is sitting at a $43MM AAV, Jackson will certainly get something in that neighborhood — Mayfield would not “settle” for a yearly rate of $35MM (his current market value per Spotrac). So once the Browns open Mayfield negotiations in earnest, it will be interesting to see how much of a gap there is between the two sides.

Ward, meanwhile, currently has a market value of $18.5MM per year, which would position him near the top of the league’s CBs. Despite being forced into more zone coverage than he probably would have liked in 2020, Ward finished as Pro Football Focus’ 23rd-best corner out of 121 qualifiers. Though he has missed at least three games due to injury in each of his first three professional seasons, his performance between the lines has been everything the Browns could have hoped for. He earned Pro Bowl honors in his rookie season, and he has tallied 40 passes defensed and seven interceptions — including one pick-six — in his young career.

Given the value of top-flight boundary corners, expect Berry to make a strong push to get a deal finalized. It’s presently unclear where things stand with guard Wyatt Teller, yet another extension candidate.

Browns, Baker Mayfield Have Not Exchanged Proposals

June 27th, 2021 at 11:32am CST by Rory Parks

Baker Mayfield‘s agent, Jack Mills, recently predicted that his client and the Browns would agree to terms on a contract extension this summer. But that might be a bit optimistic. According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, Mayfield’s camp and the Browns have not even exchanged proposals yet, and she suggests that a new deal might not get done until late October.

Why then? Because at the start of the 2020 season, for which there were no spring workouts and no preseason, Mayfield was still getting used to head coach Kevin Stefanski‘s offense. But as Cabot observes, Mayfield was Pro Football Focus’ second-highest-rated QB over the final seven games of the year, and both player and team believe that is more representative of who Mayfield is (even though he did have some quality performances over the first few weeks of the campaign as well). By waiting until the end of October to authorize a massive extension, the Browns will essentially have a full season of data on how Mayfield performs in a quality offense that he completely understands.

The Browns are also working on new contracts for other key members of the roster, like CB Denzel Ward, RB Nick Chubb, and G Wyatt Teller (this is the first we have publicly heard that the club is talking contract with Teller and Ward, though it’s hardly a surprise). The front office might want to get those less costly pacts out of the way before turning its full attention to the Mayfield situation.

And Mayfield, who is perfectly content to bet on himself, also has reason to wait. If draftmates Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson sign extensions with AAVs in excess of $40MM, Cabot says Mayfield will not “settle” for a $35MM AAV, which Spotrac currently considers to be his market value.

At this point, Cleveland and Mayfield have no doubt that a deal will get done. It’s really just a matter of when.

Latest On Browns, Baker Mayfield

June 23rd, 2021 at 12:39pm CST by Zachary Links

The Browns have Baker Mayfield under contract through 2022, thanks to his fifth-year option. Now that the quarterback is firmly in extension territory, agent Jack Mills believes that a long-term arrangement is just around the corner.

“I think something will be done this summer,” Mills said (via Tony Grossi of WKNR). “As far as trying to get a deal done, I don’t know if it’ll get done. It’s something that would be pretty much in the team’s control.”

Mayfield’s fully-guaranteed $18.858MM salary for ’22 is nothing to sneeze at, but it’s less than 14 other quarterbacks are making in average annual value. For his part, Mayfield says he isn’t sweating it.

“I’m in no rush because I’m just trying to win games,” the QB said earlier this month. “Like I said, it’ll handle itself. I’m sure [agents] Tom and Jack Mills are handling that. I don’t try and feed too much into that because it’s like wasting my time and energy and thought process on things I’m not in control of right now.”

After the Browns declined to pursue Aaron Rodgers this offseason, it’s safe to say that they’ll move fast to get Mayfield locked up for years to come.

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