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The Panthers are apparently hoping to capture the market with the top three draft picks of 2018 playing quarterback and expected to earn $18.8 million in 2022.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Mary Kay Cabot reports that the Panthers have “the inside path to the touchdown” to land Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield.
The report raises more questions than it answers, speaking of “several interested teams” but not naming any.
Mayfield only mentioned the Colts (acknowledging that the ship has sailed) and the Seahawks in a recent podcast. It’s unclear why the Panthers want Mayfield. Unless everything is part of a smokescreen ahead of the draft, it could mean the Panthers have “none of the above” chosen for the top options in the 2022 quarterback class. With the Panthers facing Deshaun Watson twice and currently staring at an entire season of Sam Darnold, Mayfield could become the latest trial-and-error option in David Tepper’s ongoing hedge fund search for a franchise quarterback.
It’s even less clear why Mayfield wanted the Panthers. He knows that 2022 has become a crucial season for him. Why would he want to play for a team with a coach in the hot seat and a fifth- or sixth-choice offensive coordinator when you consider the candidates knew they were taking a job on a team whose owner had a finger over the reset- button has ?
The biggest factor overlooked in the various accounts and speculation surrounding Mayfield’s target is the power he wields. Yes, he only gets his $18.8 million if he shows up. But if he makes it clear he doesn’t want to play for a specific team before that team trades for him, why would that team want to make the deal?
The Panthers currently have Darnold, the third pick in the 2018 draft, under contract on the same guaranteed salary as Mayfield. Mayfield’s next team certainly wouldn’t pay everything, especially since Cleveland’s only alternative to keeping him on the list (and lovers of Mayhem should cheer this result) would be to cut him and get the $1,035 minimum from someone else million and forced Cleveland to pay approximately $17.7 million to play for someone else.
The crux of the matter is the timing. The Browns can perch on Mayfield and delay his opportunity to properly settle elsewhere. How would Mayfield react? Would it make him more likely to accept a trade anywhere? Or would he decide that he would show up for everything and compound the distraction his continued presence would create – at a time when the team already has 22 distractions at the most important position on the roster?
Cabot says the move from Mayfield to Mayberry “could happen sometime in the next few weeks.” Two weeks from today the draft has come and gone. And maybe, just maybe, the vague hint that the Panthers want Mayfield sometime in the next two weeks is meant to dissuade other teams from believing that the Panthers will target a quarterback with the sixth overall pick in the draft — or spot it at a lower one whether they eventually trade down.
If all else fails, they can trade for the player who receiver Robby Anderson has already made it clear he doesn’t want to be on the team.
Perhaps lovers of chaos shouldn’t be pushing for the Browns to keep Mayfield, but send him to Carolina.