Cleveland Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters on Tuesday that banged-up quarterback Baker Mayfield won't play in Sunday's regular season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals, and will soon undergo surgery to repair a non-throwing shoulder injury that he suffered in mid-September.
2021 can be labeled an abject failure for the Browns, which were pegged as a Super Bowl contender during the preseason. With a record of 7-9, the team is mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, and to make matters even worse, Mayfield's rash of injuries and stats as a fourth-year starter were discouraging. So, has the time come for Cleveland to reconsider its future with Mayfield?
"If you're the Cleveland Browns, how do you pitch your team and your offense to a Russell Wilson, or to one of these top quarterbacks you want to bring in?" CBS Sports NFL reporter Jonathan Jones told the Maggie and Perloff show on Tuesday. "Because you don't have the receivers. You're going to have a 29-year-old Jarvis Landry, and that's about it. You can pitch them on the offensive line, you can pitch them on the running backs.
"But with a free agent receiver market that's going to be very dry in a couple months, you can't really replenish your receivers. You can't say, 'Hey, you're going to come here and throw for 5,000 yards. That may rub a few of those quarterbacks that you want in the wrong way. And so, because of that, I think ultimately -- even though as bad as he looked last night -- I think the odds are that Baker is back with the Browns in 2022."
Mayfield, who was drafted first overall by Cleveland in 2018, took a beating in the team's road loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday, as he was sacked a whopping nine times. He completed just 16 of 38 passes for 185 yards with a pair of touchdowns and picks, and his 53.1 passer rating was a season-low. In 14 games, Mayfield threw for 3,010 yards with 17 scores and 13 picks, and his career-low QBR of 35.3 ranks 26th in the league.
Although Cleveland has already exercised the fifth-year option on Mayfield's rookie contract -- he'll be owed $18.8 million in 2022 -- there's still a chance that the team tries to trade him during the offseason. According to Spotrac, Mayfield's current market value is listed at $145 million across five seasons, which would make him the 12th-highest paid quarterback.
The entire NFL conversation between Jones and Maggie and Perloff can be accessed in the audio player above.
You can follow the Maggie and Perloff Show on Twitter @MaggieandPerl and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.