Training camp is looming around and yet Baker Mayfield is still part of the Browns roster. It's been nearly four months since Cleveland landed Deshaun Watson from the Houston Texans, but no team has so far acquired the services of Mayfield.
While his poor play in the 2021 NFL season may have also driven any possible suitors away, the biggest reason why Baker is still with the Browns might be the $18,858,000 salary he's due this year after the team picked up his fifth-year option.
Besides, the timing of their breakup was not the best, as many teams had already resolved their quarterback situations by then. Therefore, Mayfield never had many options out there. But it seems that the list of his possible landing spots was even shorter than we imagined.
Rumor: Seahawks were never that interested in Baker Mayfield
Though the Panthers and Seahawks were often mentioned as potential destinations for the Browns outcast, Carolina always seemed the biggest suitor. In fact, NFL Insider Ian Rapoport claims that Seattle was never seriously interested in Mayfield:
“There’s a couple of times a year when this happens where you get an internet rumor that kind of takes on a life of its own,” Rapoport said on the Pat McAfee Show. “And believe me, I always check, and I have heard nothing to corroborate Baker to the Seahawks at all. And like, I don’t know what’s going to happen at the end of all of this, like maybe this guy announces he’s trolling us, but like, it seems crazy to me but they have never really been that interested in Baker. What they have wanted is a Drew Lock vs. Geno Smith battle."
Pete Carroll seemed to shut the door on Mayfield a few months back, so what Rapoport says makes a lot of sense. The Browns' asking price has been too high all these months, and now only the Panthers seem to still have real interest in him — as long as Cleveland accepts to pay much of his contract.
