PALM BEACH, Fla. — For all intents and purposes, the Cleveland Browns are talking about Baker Mayfield in the past tense. The question now appears to be whether the franchise is willing to incur salary cap pain to make him a tradable commodity.
Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski said Monday that Cleveland would prefer to get the situation with Mayfield’s future “resolved soon” but it’s something that has “several dynamics” in play before that can happen. Other teams at the league’s annual spring owners meetings in Florida have made it fairly clear what the two biggest dynamics are: Mayfield’s $18.8 million guaranteed salary next season, and then the progress of the January surgery to repair the torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder.
Those two issues, along with Cleveland trading for Deshaun Watson and signing Jacoby Brissett, have left the Browns with very little leverage on the trade market with Mayfield. So much so that interested teams seem fairly certain that…