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Who says there isn’t NFL news in early July?
NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport shared the news on social media that the Cleveland Browns are sending quarterback Baker Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers in exchange for a conditional 2024 fifth-round draft choice.
Rapoport added that Mayfield will end his vacation and fly into Carolina on Thursday, July 7 to take his physical. As long as he passes that the trade will officially go through.
To make the trade work “all the parties split the financials to make it happen” which had previously been a holdup in trade conversations.
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Bad News for an Ex-Jets Passer
With Mayfield in Carolina, that is bad news for former Jets quarterback Sam Darnold.
The former USC stud was the favorite to start at quarterback this season, but the Panthers brass left the door open to add some competition and boy did they ahead of training camp.
Now the 25-year-old will have to fend off a quarterback from his same draft class in 2018 to hold onto his job.
That’ll prove difficult as Mayfield has clearly had more success in the NFL and will be the hot new thing in town.
Both quarterbacks have had four seasons under their belts and the statistical comparisons reveal a stark contrast:
- 92 touchdowns to 56 interceptions (Mayfield)
- 54 touchdowns to 52 interceptions (Darnold)
- 10,624 passing yards (Darnold)
- 14,125 passing yards (Mayfield)
Stage Is Set
Well with Mayfield officially gone from the Browns roster (pending a physical), we now know one guy the Jets won’t see in their Week 2 matchup on the road in Cleveland.
There are only three quarterbacks left on the roster: Deshaun Watson, Jacoby Brissett, and Joshua Dobbs.
Watson is expected to receive a suspension this offseason with recent reports from the Washington Post suggesting it could be upwards of a year.
That means the Jets will likely face either Brissett or Dobbs who are much lesser entities at quarterback than Watson or even Mayfield for that matter.
When the schedule first dropped in May tons of Jets fans overreacted about the difficulty of the schedule and the opening stretch.
However, this is and has been a quarterback-driven league.
While they still have to face off against a former NFL MVP at quarterback in Week 1 (Lamar Jackson) and a guy who was just in the Super Bowl (Joe Burrow) in Week 3, there are still opportunities to be had.
The Brissett/Dobbs combination is hardly daunting then in Week 4, you have either Mitch Trubisky (failed former first-rounder) or a rookie passer in Kenny Pickett who is completely unproven.
This Mayfield trade is great on multiple levels for the Jets and we’ll have to see what else this wild offseason has in store heading into training camp at the end of the month.
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