5 reasons the Cleveland Browns will have to trade Baker Mayfield before the season
By Chad Porto
The Cleveland Browns cap situation is hellacious.
One of the arguments that fans make about why the Cleveland Browns should hold onto Baker Mayfield and not eat a sizeable amount of cap space is that a team will come calling. Eventually. Sometime in October, more than likely, when forty different quarterbacks get hurt. Or something to that effect.
It’s a bad argument in general, but that’s going to be addressed later on. No, the reason why the Browns aren’t going to wait to trade Mayfield is that they can’t afford to financially. Andrew Berry is spending money like it’s somebody else’s, cus it is. The team, as of this writing, have just $7 million left to play with this season.
That’s it. You can try to go to some players, re-negotiate and lessen the cap burden by getting someone like Myles Garrett to re-work their contract, but all that does is delay when the money is owed against the cap, not get rid of the payment. No, the best option for relieving the cap issue is to either trade Mayfield or have him re-work his deal so he can be released.
The problem is that Mayfield isn’t restructuring his contract and nor should he. He’s earned every penny. A pro football player could take one hit and break his neck, so once a player gets the money, he should never give any of it back. For any reason. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed in the NFL.
That, and there’s no reason for any player to ever take less money if a team wants to get rid of him.
As for trading Mayfield, the Browns aren’t going to be able to find someone willing to take on all $18 million, because every team in the NFL knows the Browns have no leverage. The Browns don’t want Mayfield, he no longer fits into the scheme they’re running, and they’re running out of money. No other team needs to make a move regarding Mayfield, except the Browns.
The Browns have to trade him or get nothing in return come the offseason.
Either the Browns take the $4-$5 million in relief now, or carry Mayfield out of stubborn pride, and hope that no one gets hurt on their end because they don’t have the salary cap to properly replace a player who goes down for the season.