The Panthers ended the Browns’ Baker Mayfield nightmare, leaving Cleveland with only several other nightmares

The Cleveland Browns will see an active Baker Mayfield in Week 1 of the 2022 NFL regular season. He’ll be on the opposite sideline, waiting to take revenge as the presumptive starting quarterback of the Carolina Panthers.

Mayfield’s association with the team that drafted him first overall in 2018 reportedly ended Wednesday after Cleveland shipped him to the NFC. In exchange, the Browns will receive a 2023 fifth-round draft pick that could become a fourth rounder based on playing time. It’s a move that gives Carolina head coach Matt Rhule his latest veteran reclamation project behind center and gives the NFL a surprising must-watch game on opening weekend when the Panthers host Mayfield’s former team.

It’s an unsurprising move. Cleveland was done with Mayfield the moment reports leaked the franchise wanted “an adult” at quarterback. Their trade for Deshaun Watson — who was facing more than 20 accusations of sexual misconduct at the time — merely cemented this.

The Browns attempted to sell high on their former franchise cornerstone this offseason, holding him through the 2022 Draft as needy teams acquired passers and impressively misunderstanding the idea of leverage in the process. In the end, a Day 3 pick for a player who was hurt throughout 2021, had no place on the roster in 2022 and ranks 25th among 33 eligible QBs in expected points added since entering the league four years ago still somehow qualifies as decent value.

It’s still not a win for Cleveland, however. This trade doesn’t fix anything for a broken Browns team in 2022. Watson, given a fully guaranteed $230 million contract extension after landing in Ohio, is still staring down a sizable league-mandated suspension for his alleged predatory behavior.

Mayfield’s deal clears some of his salary from the books, but he’s still owed more than $10 million from Cleveland as part of the deal. Since the Browns already had a league-high $40 million in cap space to begin with, per Over The Cap, it’s tough to see how any savings really makes a major difference.

Presumptive starter Jacoby Brissett is a reasonable backup but has just a 75.2 passer rating since a knee injury sapped his effectiveness for a punchy Colts team in 2019. His record as a starter since then is just 4-8.

Getting a possible fourth round pick back for Mayfield doesn’t shore up an understaffed wide receiver depth chart led by Amari Cooper (good) and further topped by Donovan Peoples-Jones and David Bell (… less good). It doesn’t fix a tight end group desperate enough for production that it laid a $10 million franchise tag bet on former first round pick David Njoku even though he’s averaged 22.1 receiving yards per game over the last three seasons.

A struggling offense threatens to wipe out the gains of a rising young defense. Cleveland rose from 25th to 11th in defensive DVOA between 2020 and 2021, but still won three fewer games because an injured Mayfield couldn’t produce the meager returns needed to push the Browns back to the postseason. Now that burden falls onto Brissett, who averaged 0.025 expected points added per play in 2021 (31st among 37 qualified passers) vs. Mayfield’s 0.048 (25th).

This trade relieves Cleveland of one headache that was already starting to fade while the others remain. The foundation of a good team is here, and management has moved mountains in hopes of keeping it that way. Shipping Mayfield out isn’t that — it’s not even something that will help the team this fall. 2022 still looks like a lost year for the Browns, which is only great news for the Houston Texans team that holds their 2023 first round pick.

And now, thoughts on the Panthers:

Rhule came to Carolina with a reputation for transforming football programs. But instead of creating any lasting change in Charlotte, he’s been stuck in the same feedback loop. Acquire reclamation project veteran quarterback, lose games, repeat.

First it was Teddy Bridgewater, who was perfectly average for a five-win team. Then came Sam Darnold, who was decidedly not for a different five-win Panther squad. Now comes Mayfield, who has a higher draft pedigree than either of the players who preceded him but similar questions to answer about his value.

Bridgewater struggled, in part, because he was operating a version of the low-impact passing offense that rebuilt his career in New Orleans (7.1 yards per pass attempt). Darnold was supposed to help fix that in 2021, but his average pass distance fell for the third straight year to 7.3. Now comes Mayfield, whose targets clocked in at roughly 8.5 yards beyond the line of scrimmage each of the last three seasons.

Rhule has to hope this can be the difference maker. Mayfield will have a pair of viable downfield targets in DJ Moore and Robby Anderson, the latter of whom has seen his deep ball usage decline significantly since arriving in Carolina. (Anderson may not be super pumped for his new quarterback, either):

There’s reason for dim hope in Charlotte. Mayfield was a noticeably different quarterback after tearing the labrum in his non-throwing shoulder last year. He’s a mobile passer who can extend plays in the pocket and throw on the run and who operates well out of play-fakes — a set Rhule used to maximize Charlie Brewer’s play and create open shots deep in an 11-win 2019 season at Baylor. With Christian McCaffrey hopefully back at full strength, Mayfield could play into the Panthers’ biggest strengths despite his limitations as a high-impact passer.

Except, per reports, Carolina isn’t exactly excited to build an offense suited to his strengths. Instead, the team is still kicking the tires on one of 2021’s worst quarterbacks:

History suggests that Mayfield will struggle to adapt to the Panthers, throw shorter passes and ultimately lean on a running game that can’t rely on McCaffrey to show up for 20+ touches per game. Rhule now has to coach against that history if he wants to keep his job in Charlotte. His mission is simple; turn Mayfield (or Darnold) into the kind of quarterback who can run his offense effectively enough to give a rising defense room to shine in a depleted NFC, or get fired.

The Browns finally traded Baker Mayfield and the NFL world had plenty of thoughts The top 20 highest paid players in the NFL: From Aaron Rodgers to Tom Brady