News Flash: Ex-Browns QB Baker Mayfield Sends Message on Next Move
Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield may have found a home in Tampa Bay.
Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield may have found a long-term home with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Mayfield and the Buccaneers returned to postseason action after losing 23-17 to the Detroit Lions in the divisional round. He threw for 349 yards and three touchdowns and also threw a pair of interceptions, including a successful turnover late in the fourth quarter. Mayfield and the Bucs lived up to expectations this season, winning the NFC South and Wild Card game against the Philadelphia Eagles. The former Browns draft pick shined, passing for 4,044 yards, 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Mayfield scored 94.6 points.
Mayfield will be a free agent this offseason, but hopes to return to Tampa Bay for another run.
“I like this group,” Mayfield said after the loss to the Lions. “I’ve been saying that all year. And it’s real. I am serious. It means a lot to me to take so many important pieces, put them back together and go into the second year of the system and you can make great progress. I would love to do that.
“Obviously, who knows what’s going to happen, but I can’t say enough about this organization and the opportunity they gave me this year. “I’m just grateful and I hope everything goes well,” he said.
Baker Mayfield is in for a hefty payday.
Mayfield signed a one-year deal with the Bucks this offseason. The base price was $4 million, but there were significant incentives. Because of his strong play and success with the team, those incentives netted him an additional $2.85 million. The Bucs now face a decision regarding Mayfield. The Browns had a decision to make compared to Mayfield, a one-time Heisman winner. Tampa Bay could give Mayfield a long-term extension or put the franchise tag on him. If the Bucs were to pick the latter, he would be worth about $36.3 million next season.
Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles said he encouraged Mayfield to return to QB1 after Sunday’s loss. “It definitely was,” Bowles said. “It’s too early to say for sure and business is business, but Baker has had a good year. We like. People like it. And we’ll see what happens next.”
Mayfield also got support from one of his star wide receivers, Chris Godwin.
“It was exactly right. I think I’ve had a lot of fighters go through the same thing and I think it just came in and settled in.” Godwin said. “I think we all love and respect Baker. “We can’t control the business side of things, but we hope so.”
“Browns ‘Screwed Over’ Baker Mayfield
The Browns traded Mayfield after acquiring Deshaun Watson in 2022. The team wasn’t sure Mayfield could be the QB of the future, so they signed Watson. The Browns gave up their first-round pick and signed Watson, who was under investigation for multiple allegations of sex-related incidents, to an unprecedented $230 million fully guaranteed contract.
With the Bucs and Watson struggling to stay on the field and Mayfield performing to his potential, the Browns’ decision to part ways with him is questionable. “Baker was ripped off by the Browns. There is no other way,” Chris Sims told the New York Post on Friday, January 19. “He played a year with a shoulder problem (2021) and he didn’t play well and they used that against him and then they went out and tried to get him without telling Deshaun Watson. When he stopped them, they realized. “Oh, I hurt him. Now we have no defenders. We have to save Deshaun Watson.
Since Mayfield’s departure, the Browns have drafted Watson, Jacoby Brissett, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, PJ Walker, Joe Flacco and Jeff Driskell.
