The Cleveland Browns were finally able to unload quarterback Baker Mayfield last week, sending him to the Carolina Panthers for a conditional 2024 fifth-round pick that becomes a fourth-rounder should Mayfield take 70 percent of the snaps at quarterback this year.
Translation: the Browns gave him away. When the smoke clears, they’ll carry a $10.5 million dead cap hit this year and now have an incredible $48.7 million in available cap space.
On the other side of the trade, the Panthers are on the hook for very little. Mayfield will cost them just $4.8 million this year and give them a veteran quarterback that could make this dormant offense click. They have everything else in place to become a potent offense in this league.
So, with Mayfield yielding so little on the open market, how did the New York Giants think they were going to deal Saquon Barkley for any type of substantial return?
The answer? They weren’t. No team came forward to make a worthy offer for Barkley, who was taken second overall in the 2018 NFL draft behind Mayfield. There is no team willing to take on Barkley’s $7.2 million salary for this season and surrender draft capital in the process.
As a result, the Giants are stuck with Barkley, which may not be the worst thing especially if he can play the whole season uninjured and provide a spark out of the backfield.
