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Well, it ended up taking some time, but the Cleveland Browns were finally able to deal quarterback Baker Mayfield.

The big rumor was that the team interested in acquiring Mayfield was the Carolina Panthers and sure enough that’s where he ended up. Carolina will send either a 4th or 5th round 2024 draft pick to Cleveland. Depending on how much Mayfield plays for the Panthers will depend on what draft choice the Browns will get.

It seemed that the biggest hang up with trading Mayfield was his salary. Mayfield was scheduled to make $18.8 million dollars next season. The Browns are going to pay $10.5 million dollars of Mayfield’s salary while the Panthers will pick up $4.85 million dollars of the money. Mayfield agreed to have the remainder of the money on his contract into incentives to help make this deal happen.

Even though Carolina acquired Mayfield they didn’t come right out and say that he’d be their starting quarterback. The Panthers also have another former 1st round pick on their roster in quarterback Sam Darnold. It appears as though the Panthers will have some type of quarterback competition in training camp to decide who the starting quarterback will be.

It’s interesting that both Mayfield and Darnold were part of the 2018 draft. Cleveland took Mayfield with the #1 overall pick in the draft while Darnold was selected by the New York Jets with the 3rd pick of the draft.

Mayfield has started 59 games in his NFL career and has a record of 29-30. In 2020 Mayfield led the Browns to a wild card berth with an 11-5 record as a starter. Darnold has made 49 starts in his NFL career including 11 starts for the Panthers last season and he has a record of 17-32 as a starter.

Will have to wait and see which one of these former 1st round picks ends up as the Panthers starting quarterback come Week 1, but no matter which one it is they’ll be trying to fulfill the promise they had when they were selected as high as they were in the 2018 draft.

If Carolina can get one of these quarterbacks to improve, they’re in an interesting position. The Panthers play in the NFC South and the only established team in that division right now seems to be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The New Orleans Saints have a new head coach for the first time since 2006 and their starting quarterback Jamies Winston still isn’t medically cleared to practice yet. The other team in the division is the Atlanta Falcons and it appears that they are still rebuilding their team.

I actually did hear some of the analysts say that they think that Carolina could get into the playoffs as a wild card team, but apparently that’s going to depend on how well whichever quarterback they end up starting plays.

Now interestingly the Panthers open the regular season on September 11th at home against the Browns. It’s possible we could see Mayfield starting against his old team in Week 1 of the NFL regular season.

With Mayfield out of Cleveland and the Browns awaiting a decision on the Deshaun Watson situation it appears as though Jacoby Brissett may end up being the starter in Cleveland when that Week 1 game against Carolina rolls around.

It appears as though there should be a decision rendered on Watson this week, but it’s unclear if or how long he’ll be suspended for. There are reports that the NFL has asked for Watson to be suspended for the entire season calling it an indefinite suspension while the NFL players union doesn’t think Watson should be suspended at all. I believe that Watson needs to get some type of suspension, but I really don’t have any idea how long that should be.

Let me know what you think about Watson. Should he be suspended? and if you think so, for how long?

Don’t forget that you can find me on Twitter @Burketime.