5 reasons the Cleveland Browns will have to trade Baker Mayfield before the season

History says the Cleveland Browns’ window to trade Baker Mayfield is about to slam shut

Baker Mayfield is done as a member of the Cleveland Browns. Everyone wants to move forward but Andrew Berry is dragging his feet. He’s only costing himself and the club future compensation by not moving Mayfield now. So why is he refusing to take the best offer available? Possibly because he thinks he can get a better deal down the line.

History tells us that’s just not likely to happen. See, Berry is holding out for a high pick and a sizeable amount of money taken off the Browns ledger this season. That’s not likely to happen. The best we know of was that the Carolina Panthers were willing to take on about $5 million, and give the Browns back a third-round pick.

Right now, that deal looks amazing. It’s a deal that will likely never be offered again. Why though? Historical precedents.

See, those who think Berry is playing four dimension chess cite five often regurgitated arguments for why it makes sense to hold onto Mayfield until the right deal comes along. Spoiler alert, that rarely ever happens.

These five arguments are;

• The Browns don’t need to worry about Mayfield’s salary.
• The Browns can just hold onto Mayfield and get a compensatory pick in the third round.
• A playoff team will be more willing to deal if their starting quarterback gets hurt mid-season.
• A bad team will be more open to upgrading if their starter is, well, bad.
• Andrew Berry will get the other team to take on more of the contract.

I’m about to bust the myth pertaining to every one of those arguments.

Now, let me be clear, I think the Browns can move Mayfield still, and get a shiny nice draft pick back, they’ll just have to eat a lot of his contract. Or, they can clear the books on Mayfield’s contract to a sizeable degree, but get very little in return.

They won’t both. Not at this point.

So why not? Let’s get into it.