After months of wait, Baker Mayfield is finally ready for a new adventure in the NFL. His time with Cleveland looked over for a long time, but it wasn’t until last week that the Browns shipped him.
The Carolina Panthers acquired the former first overall pick the way they wanted. The Browns, who traded for Deshaun Watson in March, agreed to pay much of Mayfield’s salary in order to get the deal done.
Mayfield and the Browns reached a point of no return this offseason, only a year after he led the team to its first playoff victory in more than two decades. Therefore, he admits he was shocked by the way his tenure in Cleveland ended.
Baker Mayfield ‘shocked’ by how his time in Cleveland ended
“I’m grateful for my time there. Yeah, shocked — I’d say was pretty much the only way to describe it,” Mayfield said, via ProFootballTalk. “But you roll with the punches and you’ve got to move forward. This is a test of adversity and how I’m going to handle it, and how I can move forward to be the best teammate possible with our new home. And I’m looking forward to it.
“Cleveland’s a special place and there’s teammates and friendships and bonds — we all contributed to that special run and to help turn that around. There’s guys, lifelong friendships that I’ll have that are very special to me, very near and dear to [my wife] Emily and I that we’ll never forget about. But I’m never a ‘me’ guy. I’m a team-first ‘win’ guy. We had a good time there and I’m looking forward to being able to contribute with Carolina now.”
Things could have certainly ended in a better way for both, but it’s too late for that. What matters is that they got the divorce they wanted for months, and now Mayfield has to focus on winning the job in Carolina.
