BERIA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns have agreed to trade quarterback Baker Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for a conditional draft pick, a source confirmed to ESPN.
The Panthers will pay $4.85 million of Mayfield’s salary, while the Browns will pay $10.5 million, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Mayfield has agreed to give up the remainder of his $18.8 million salary to facilitate the pending deal, the source said.
The Browns will receive a fourth- or fifth-round pick in 2024, depending on Mayfield’s playing time in Carolina.
The news was first reported by NFL Network.
Mayfield, the No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft, joins a Panthers team that already has Sam Darnold, the No. 3 overall pick in 2018, on its quarterback depth chart. The Panthers also selected Matt Corral in the third round of this year’s draft.
Now, Mayfield and Darnold, who competed against each other to become the No. 1 pick in 2018, will compete again in training camp to battle for the right to be the Panthers’ starter this season.
The Mayfield trade comes on the heels of Cleveland’s blockbuster trade with the Houston Texans that brought in quarterback Deshaun Watson. The Browns gave Watson a new five-year contract worth $230 million fully guaranteed, the richest deal in guaranteed money in NFL history by as much as $80 million. Cleveland also surrendered three first-round picks in the trade, the first team to do so for a player since the Minnesota Vikings traded three first-rounders to the Dallas Cowboys for running back Herschel Walker in 1989.
With Mayfield gone, the Browns now have Watson as their starter along with Jacoby Brissett and Josh Dobbs at quarterback. However, Watson may not be available to the Browns at all this season. He has been accused in civil lawsuits by 25 women for acts ranging from sexual assault to inappropriate behavior during massage sessions. His hearing before the jointly appointed NFL and NFL Players Association disciplinary officer, Sue L. Robinson, ended after three days last Thursday.
The NFL has been pushing for a suspension for at least a year, according to Graziano, who reported that both sides have made multiple attempts to reach an agreement while the hearing is still underway, but have yet to come to an agreement. There is no timetable for Robinson’s decision.
If Watson is sidelined, the Browns are expected to start Brissett at quarterback.
The Watson trade effectively ended the Mayfield era in Cleveland. The Browns drafted the former Heisman Trophy winner No. 1 in 2018, and he made his Week 3 debut this season off the bench and led the Browns to their first win in 635 days. He finished second in NFL Rookie of the Year voting while breaking the NFL rookie record with 27 touchdowns. This record was later surpassed in 2020 by Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers, who finished with 31 touchdown passes.
However, Mayfield’s tenure as a whole was marred by inconsistency, drama and a left shoulder injury that plagued him through the 2021 season.
And in his four years in Cleveland, Mayfield, according to multiple sources, has grown increasingly disillusioned with a franchise that has made him the fourth quarterback in NFL history to play for four different head coaches in his first three seasons. Even after Mayfield led the Browns to their first playoff win in 26 years in the 2020 season, the team declined to commit Mayfield’s camp to a potential contract extension once he became eligible, a signal to Mayfield that he may not is in the team long-term plans.
Mayfield then suffered a torn labrum in his non-throwing left shoulder in Week 2. Rather than sit out or undergo season-ending surgery, Mayfield played through the injury and struggled for much of the season. One season after finishing in the top 10 in QBR in 2020, he fell all the way to 27th in 2021, the biggest drop in QBR (-30.4) of any passer in the league, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Still, over the past two months, both Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry have repeatedly confirmed publicly that Mayfield will remain their quarterback.
At the combine in February, Berry told Mayfield’s agent that the Browns might pursue an elite-level quarterback like Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers, according to a source familiar with the conversation. Mayfield’s camp was also aware that the short list could eventually include Watson, even with 22 pending civil cases alleging inappropriate behavior and sexual assault during massage sessions.
On March 12, when a Texas grand jury declined to bring criminal charges against Watson, the Browns made their move, securing a meeting with Watson in Houston.
Multiple sources told ESPN that Mayfield was angry that the Browns did not directly inform him that they would meet with Watson; instead, he found out about it through social media. Mayfield responded with a statement that night, thanking the city of Cleveland and its fans “for really embracing who I am” as Browns officials returned from Houston.
The turning point for Mayfield with the Browns, however, came the next day.
On March 16, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported that a Browns source told him the team wanted to replace Mayfield with “an adult at the position.”
Mayfield requested a trade the next day. The Browns initially told him they were “not honoring his request.” But once Cleveland signed Watson, it made Mayfield indispensable.
As a result, Mayfield became just the third quarterback in NFL history to go No. 1 overall in the draft and last four or fewer seasons with the team that drafted him, according to ESPN Stats & Information, joining JaMarcus Russell ( Raiders) and Jeff George (Colts).
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