Despite what Joe Thomas said, no, Baker Mayfield didn’t turn down $30 million

The Cleveland Browns did not offer Baker Mayfield a $30 million contract

Joe Thomas claimed the Cleveland Browns offered Baker Mayfield $30 million during the 2020-2021 offseason. This was part of his tangent on how Mayfield overplayed his hand during the season and subsequent offseason which saw the Browns replace him with Deshaun Watson. Watson has 25 accusations and 22 civil suits pending against him due to sexual misconduct allegations.

Thomas despite his ties with the team, seemed to misremember a report that speculated what Mayfield was worth according to the team, not what he was offered. During the 2021 offseason, the word around the street was that Mayfield was being viewed as a guy worth $30 million per year, but that no contract offer had been made.

Thomas apparently misremembered this and made an erroneous report to the contrary. This was quickly corrected by Mary Kay Cabot, who has a reputation for knowing the ins and outs of the Browns’ front office.

What if Joe Thomas isn’t wrong about the Baker Mayfield offer?

I believe Cabot, you don’t keep a job this long if you’re bad at it. You may not like what she reports and may like even less about her opinions, but she’s very in touch with those in power. She would know these things. That’s how the game is played, front offices leak information to either make them look good, or players look bad.

So let’s assume that Thomas was told by someone in the front office that Mayfield did in fact turn down a $30 million per year contract; what would the motivation be for that? It certainly wouldn’t have come from Mayfield or his camp, so it’d be far more likely that if Thomas was told something different than Cabot, it’s likely to do with making Mayfield look worse in the eyes of the fans.

After all, the Browns are not in a good place right now, as fans are canceling their season tickets at a pretty high rate. It would make sense, and this is just speculation, that if the Browns were feeding Thomas wrong information, it would be to damage the credibility of Mayfield and make him look silly.

This is just speculation. I firmly believe that Thomas simply misremembered a report from last year about what Mayfield was being valued at, and not that the Browns are pulling some contemptuous ploy to damage a former player’s credibility.