Browns' Stance on Cutting Baker Mayfield Revealed

The Cleveland Browns continue to probe the trade market in order to find a deal for disgruntled quarterback Baker Mayfield. They've been met with a cool response, though, as teams don't want to pay most of the QB's $18.85 million salary in 2022.

This has prompted some to wonder if the Browns would just cut Mayfield in order to move on if a deal doesn't materialize, but it appears that's not an option.

Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reports the team has "no plans" to cut Mayfield, "even if he’s still on the roster at the start of training camp in July." Cleveland isn't interested in shouldering the QB's entire fully guaranteed 2022 salary if he's cut, so finding a trade partner would help alleviate at least part of the bill.

This isn't too surprising of an approach. Though teams aren't interested in Mayfield right now given the movement of QBs this offseason, the former No. 1 overall pick could become a hot commodity if preseason injuries opening up starting jobs around the league.

In fact, if even one contending team is suddenly down its QB1 before the start of the regular season, they could be aggressive to bring in Mayfield.

The Browns electing to play the waiting game doesn't provide an immediate resolution to this situation, but it should give the best return when a deal does finally come to fruition.

Isaiah De Los Santos is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Isaiah De Los Santos also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username zayyy05328. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.