Former Browns QB Baker Mayfield set to cash in this offseason after bouncing back this season
A former No. 1 pick of the Cleveland Browns has turned his career around and should soon be cashing in. Baker Mayfield bounced back in 2023 on a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa Bay and Mayfield made it to the divisional round of the playoffs, where they fell to the Detroit Lions […]
A former No. 1 pick of the Cleveland Browns has turned his career around and should soon be cashing in.
Baker Mayfield bounced back in 2023 on a one-year deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa Bay and Mayfield made it to the divisional round of the playoffs, where they fell to the Detroit Lions yesterday.
According to our cap experts at A to Z Sports, Mayfield is looking at a middle-tier quarterback deal. The number currently sits at $82 million over three years. It breaks down to $27.5 million per season.
This puts him on a trajectory to earn a mid-tier deal that will most likely work off the original model set by Teddy Bridgewater in Carolina in 2020 and then updated by Geno Smith and the Seahawks in 2022.
• Franchise Tag Likelihood: Low
• 3 years $82.5M, $27.5M APY, $32.5M Fully Gtd
• Year One Cap Hit: $12.5 million
Cleveland traded Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers two offseasons ago and his 2022 campaign was one to forget. The Oklahoma product had just 10 touchdowns to eight interceptions in 2022. He made 10 starts between his time with the Panthers, and then with the Los Angeles Rams after Carolina released him.
Mayfield completed 64.3 percent of his passes and threw for 4,044 yards with 28 touchdowns in his first season with Tampa Bay. All of those numbers were career highs.
At one point last season, Mayfield’s career was taking a nosedive. There are takes out there that believed he was a career backup going forward. To see Mayfield bounce back has been cool. The Browns hope they’ve figured out their quarterback position with Deshaun Watson, but that’s yet to be proven.
Whether folks like it or not, Mayfield will always be connected to Cleveland. They’re the team that took him No. 1 overall and traded him before his fifth season.
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If the opportunity comes about he should take it.
