CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – A dizzying nine trades were made during the opening round of the 2022 NFL Draft but Baker Mayfield was not among them.
With no pick in the first round, Browns executive vice president of football operations and general manager Andrew Berry watched the proceedings from Las Vegas closely in the hopes of a market for Mayfield materializing this weekend.
The Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks remained viable destinations for Mayfield after both teams selected an offensive tackle with their first round picks in the 2022 NFL Draft Thursday night.
The Panthers selected North Carolina State's Ickey Ekwonu with the sixth overall pick and the Seahawks took Mississippi State's Charles Cross ninth.
The demand for Mayfield has been lukewarm at best in recent weeks but Berry hopes that changes during the draft and the picks by Carolina and Seattle - both teams who need a starting quarterback - helps Berry's efforts.
Mayfield is scheduled to make $18.858 million guaranteed this coming season but it is expected the Browns will have to pick up a portion of that salary and possibly send a pick along with Mayfield in a trade.
It could be argued that Mayfield is much better than any of the quarterbacks in this class, but it might not matter. Teams love rookie potential, especially quarterbacks.
But no quarterback was selected in the top 10 of the Draft for the first time since 2013.
Kenny Pickett of Pitt was the lone quarterback selected in round 1 and he gets to stay in Pittsburgh after the Steelers took him 20th overall.
Washington called the Browns about Mayfield prior to acquiring Carson Wentz from the Colts. Tampa Bay also placed a call to Berry about Baker, but that was before Tom Brady unretired and the Watson deal went down.
After Deshaun Watson did a 180 and chose Cleveland and the Browns shocked the NFL with that five-year contract redo, the remaining market for Mayfield quickly evaporated.
The Colts traded for soon to be 37-year-old Matt Ryan from the Falcons instead of the much younger Mayfield. Atlanta signed Marcus Mariota and their GM said recently they hope to draft a quarterback this weekend. The Saints signed Jameis Winston.
And just like that, poof.
Whatever leverage Berry hoped to generate was gone in the blink of an eye – or in this case the span of three hours in March but the league made their feelings known about this crop of rookie QBs potentially bolstering Berry's ability to make a deal.
Carolina or Seattle still appear to be logical destinations and the best hope.
If Berry can’t move the 2018 No. 1 overall pick by Saturday, the Browns could be stuck with him going into training camp, and nobody wants that.
