Baker Mayfield’s future remains in limbo as the quarterback waits to see which team will trade for him this season. The Panthers have consistently been viewed as the favorite, but Carolina and the Browns haven’t been able to agree on a deal yet.
The biggest obstacle between the two teams seems to be Mayfield’s contract. While appearing in the Rich Eisen Show, SI’s Albert Breer said that Cleveland is willing to pay around half of Mayfield’s salary to ease any deal.
“Cleveland’s been willing to take on a fair amount of Baker’s salary, like $9, $10 million,” he said. “For people out there who think that Cleveland’s holding on to Baker as Deshaun insurance, they wouldn’t be offering to take on a pretty significant portion of the guy’s salary if they were looking to hold him until there’s more clarity in the Deshaun Watson case.”
However, Breer said the Panthers would only do a Mayfield trade if it’s a “bargain” salary-wise, meaning they only pay around $5 million total.
“If there was a good deal out for Baker Mayfield for the Panthers, he might already be a Panther,” he said. “If they were in a position where they only had to pay him $4 or $5 million, then I think there is a decent chance that Baker Mayfield would be in Carolina now and Cleveland would have a draft pick for him.”
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Mayfield is set to earn $18.86 million after Cleveland picked up his fifth-year option last year. However, Carolina is already paying Sam Darnold’s fifth-year option of $18.85 million and doesn’t want to add significantly more money at the quarterback position.
Additionally, the Panthers are happy with Matt Corral’s presence on the roster as their third-round pick this season, and are comfortable with a Corral-Darnold quarterback competition or a three-man race if they can add Mayfield.
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