BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Baker Mayfield can't pack the U-Haul for Charlotte.
The Panthers look to be out of the Mayfield sweepstakes.
Buzz of the Panthers’ pursuit of Mayfield took off early on Day 2 of the 2022 NFL Draft but a cold bucket of water got tossed on the talk late Friday night.
Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports reported talks between the two teams broke down over how much money Cleveland would have to pay of the guaranteed $18.858 million on his contract this coming season.
“That’s a fluid situation and we’ll deal with it day to day,” Browns executive vice president of football operations Andrew Berry said. “My focus has really been on the guys that we acquired, the guys who are going to be rookie players next fall.”
Moments after Robinson's report, the Panthers traded into the third round at No. 94 and selected Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral. The selection seemingly indicated Carolina moving on.
Earlier Friday evening, NFL Network’s Steve Smith Sr. took to Twitter and yelled “Nooooooo” in a video he posted in which he also said he was hearing the Panthers were interested in acquiring the 2018 No. 1 overall pick from Cleveland.
The former Panthers great has been very vocal against Carolina going after Mayfield.
Berry downplayed any feelings of disappointment about the real possibility he may not be able to trade Mayfield this weekend.
“We’ll feel fine,” Berry said. “It’s something we’ll deal with day to day. The focus is really on the players that we can add to the team and we’ll deal with that situation as it progresses.”
Mayfield is anxious to be dealt after the Browns traded for Deshaun Watson and gave him a five-year $230 million fully guaranteed contract in March and signed quarterbacks Jacoby Brissett and Josh Dobbs in free agency.
But there aren’t many takers for Mayfield, which is a challenge for Berry to deal with considering the circumstances and dynamics involved.
“I would not say it is any more challenging than really a lot of situations that cross a general manager’s desk,” Berry said. “I would say over the past two and half years, we have all probably dealt with a number of unique ones, starting with the pandemic. It comes with the territory in terms of dealing with different roster situations. I would not say that it is unique in that regard.”
Mayfield is 30-31, including the playoffs, as a starter for Cleveland and he had the second-longest streak of consecutive starts in franchise history. He has a 61.6 career completion percentage for 14,125 yards with 92 touchdowns but an NFL-worst since 2018 56 interceptions.
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