Carolina Panthers: Not biting on Baker Mayfield trade
Some will rip on the Cleveland Browns for not taking on more of Baker Mayfield’s contract, but the Carolina Panthers could end up being the ones who regret the move.
With Deshaun Watson in Cleveland, Mayfield has been placed on the trading block and reports suggested the Panthers were interested but money was the sticking point. Carolina apparently wanted to pay roughly $4-5 million of Mayfield’s $18.9 million contract and the Browns said no thank you.
Carolina didn’t budge and now, they enter OTAs with Sam Darnold and Matt Corral as their top quarterbacks. This isn’t a great plan for any team, let alone one that has a head coach on the hot seat.
Matt Rhule is a depressing 10-23 in his first two seasons as a coach and another double-digit losing season will surely do him in. This isn’t to say Mayfield would have been his savior but it’s hard to argue he wouldn’t be an upgrade over Darnold and Corral.
The Panthers not only had the salary cap space to pay Mayfield but they could also make other contract moves to offset the addition. It wouldn’t be ideal to have Mayfield and Darnold on the books with guaranteed deals but the price of another losing season could be even worse.