The trade return on Baker Mayfield was as laughable as expected

The Cleveland Browns traded Baker Mayfield, a playoff-winning quarterback, for one draft pick.

The Cleveland Browns is the Browns after all. We knew this day was coming, we knew all the hoopla around it was never going to live up to the hype and we knew that it would be a disappointing return, but man, we didn’t know it’d be this bad. The Cleveland Browns have traded away Baker Mayfield for a conditional draft pick, which could be a 4th or 5th rounder depending on time played.

In return, the Browns will pay $10.5 million of his contract, more than they reportedly wanted to pay, while the Panthers pay $5 million, and Mayfield re-works his contract to give up about $3 million to make the trade work.

This trade was always going to happen, as the Panthers seemed to be the most aggressive in the trade process over the last few weeks. Despite some in the ESPN bubble claiming the Seattle Seahawks didn’t have that much interest, that’s been challenged by nearly everyone else, who were saying the Seahawks just lost out, and are now spinning a narrative that they were never that in on Mayfield.

Except they were.

The Browns’ return here is sad. January 2021 ended with Mayfield nearly going to the AFC title game and here we a year and a half later, and he’s going to Carolina for a conditional mid-to-late round pick.

One has to wonder if the lying, the “adult in the room” comment, the Deshuawn Watson debacle, and the constant hardball playing didn’t hurt the Browns’ return for Mayfield. Maybe if they didn’t spend all offseason justifying why they made the move to replace him, the rest of the league wouldn’t have been as hesitant to trade for him? Who knows.

What can be said about this trade is that it happened when it needed to. The Browns still had time to make the deal, the Panthers still have time to incorporate Mayfield into the offense, and all in all, while the return isn’t great, the timing couldn’t have really been much better.

The Carolina Panthers could quickly become a contender for the NFC South

I’m not in love with the NFC South. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are old, the Saints don’t have their coach anymore and the Falcons are in a full rebuild. If Christian McCaffery can actually stay healthy, and Mayfield and Rashard Higgins can recapture that glory they had in Cleveland, then this Panthers offense could be really strong.

They haven’t had a fully functioning quarterback since the year Cam Newton took them to the Super Bowl, and ever since have either had a banged-up Netwon, or scrubs trying to keep things from falling apart.

The Panthers could make a run at the NFC South crown this season, and if they did, then that would do so much to rehabilitate Mayfield’s career.

Should Mayfield not fall apart in Carolina, it’s fair to say he’s the second-best quarterback in the division right now. That’s assuming Tom Brady doesn’t have a season like Peyton Manning had in 2015, where despite winning a Super Bowl, Manning was absolutely done as a quarterback. If Brady has a season like Manning’s ’15 campaign then Mayfield could slide into the No. 1 spot in the division by default.

Though, I don’t think Brady is throwing 59% and 17 interceptions this season.