Getty Images Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield.
The Cleveland Browns are still trying to find a trade partner for Baker Mayfield and the good news for any team looking to acquire the former top pick is that he’s fully recovered from offseason shoulder surgery.
Mayfield played almost the entirety of last season with a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder he suffered while attempting to make a tackle on an interception against the Texans. It required him to wear a brace and contributed to his inconsistent play on the field.
Mayfield sat out the Browns’ final game of the season to protect his health and announced on January 19 that he had undergone a successful procedure on his shoulder. He’s been throwing this offseason but is now 100% as training camp nears, per Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com.
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“The good news for Mayfield is that he’s 100% recovered from surgery Jan. 19th to repair the fully torn labrum in his non-throwing left shoulder and will be full-go in training camp,” Cabot reported on Thursday, June 23.
Baker Mayfield Ready to Get Back to ‘True Self’
Mayfield and those in the Browns organization were not clear on how much the injury affected his play but comments from then-backup Case Keenum made it clear that Mayfield was fighting to get on the field most weeks.
“I did have a front row seat to one of the gutsiest, toughest performances of a quarterback playing in a season that I have ever seen,” Keenum said on January 5 prior to the Browns finale. “I think his entire season he was battling a lot of things. He is one of the toughest guys I know, and he is a fighter. He came to fight every single day and pushed through a lot of adversity just to get on the field on Sundays.”
Mayfield was adamant during a video he posted to social media after having the procedure that he was ready to get back to his “true self.”
“This is not the end of my story,” Mayfield said. “It’s just going to be one of those little things that I’ll look back and remember that’s one of those challenges and adversity that I’m going to try to take advantage of me, and it’ll make me a better person.”
Insider Doubles Down on Mayfield Trade to Panthers
The talk around a Mayfield trade has heated up over the last week, with the both the Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks emerging in reports as serious suitors. Cabot believes the Panthers are still eager to get a deal done to have Mayfield as their starter for Week 1. Per Cabot:
Ideally, the Panthers would’ve completed the deal by last week to get the playbook in Mayfield’s hands and get him acclimated to the team. But if it happens over the next couple of weeks, he’ll still have plenty of time to get up to speed for training camp and be ready to start against the team that drafted him No. 1 overall in 2018 on opening day.
She wasn’t as bullish on the Seattle, which Josina Anderson of CBS Sports cited as having a “high level of interest” in a trade for Mayfield. Cabot reported that the Seahawks would only be interested in the former top pick if he was cut by the Browns, which is highly unlikely.