Baker Mayfield, Browns seem willing to “wait and see” on contract extension

Baker Mayfield betting on himself, again? Browns going against their “guardrails”?

The Cleveland Browns finally have their franchise quarterback in Baker Mayfield. After the 2020 season, Mayfield may finally have stability in leadership within the Browns that he feels comfortable growing with.

With two years left on his rookie deal, most of the offseason conversation was about when and how much Mayfield would sign an extension for. Last year, Myles Garrett signed his extension in the middle of July. Drafted one year later, the thought was that Mayfield might sign his extension around one year later as well.

Instead, it seems that both the team and the player may be willing to wait things out until next offseason to get a deal done, according to NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport:

 

As is noted, the Browns have extension decisions to make on a number of players including Nick Chubb and Denzel Ward. Starters Wyatt Teller and Ronnie Harrison are also set to become free agents at the end of this season.

All of those contracts will come much cheaper than whatever Mayfield would sign for. With that in mind, it makes some sense for the Browns to focus on them as Mayfield also seems to want to wait it out. However, this goes against some of the Browns’ “guardrails” related to paying players early and investing in the quarterback.

For Mayfield, betting on himself has often paid off. He walked on at both Texas Tech and Oklahoma, leading to a Heisman Trophy and being the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft. Mayfield would not be the first quarterback to bet on himself in this way. Joe Flacco, Kirk Cousins and Dak Prescott each did so and ended up cashing in.

For the Browns and Mayfield, the franchise tag always looms over future contract decisions. If the two sides can’t work out a long-term deal sooner, the team could place the tag on their quarterback two years in a row, which happened to both Cousins and Prescott. Two years of the franchise tag would guarantee Mayfield big money while making it certain that the player was around through the 2024 season.

The Browns and Mayfield may come together sooner but sounds like neither is rushing to get something done this offseason which will lead this story to linger until pen meets paper.