Baker Mayfield Rumors: Browns Have Had No 'Substantive' Contract Talks with QB

Baker Mayfield enters the 2021 season with one year remaining on his current contract. The Cleveland Browns have yet to discuss keeping their franchise QB around past 2022. All of it will hang over the next 17 weeks as the Oklahoma product looks to take the Browns back to the postseason in consecutive years for the first time since 1989. 

According to cleveland.com's Mary Kay Cabot, both Mayfield and the Browns are on board with this approach. The two sides are fine entering the season without substantive extension talks.

"If all goes as planned and the offense is as explosive as expected," Cabot wrote. "Mayfield will negotiate from a position of greater strength—likely during the season—and increase his chances of topping $40 million a year, which is the going rate for top QB extensions these days."

There's no question Mayfield has a wide range of talent in his huddle to hep increase his value. Wideouts Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry and Donovan Peoples-Jones are all stellar options in the passing game. Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, meanwhile, make up arguably the best backfield committee in football.

That's all before adding tight ends Austin Hooper and David Njoku into the fold. 

Mayfield will earn $5.1 million this season before the already-exercised fifth-year option on his contract balloons his salary to $18.9 million in 2022. By the time the 2023 season begins, both of those numbers may look minuscule in comparison. 

Spotrac's Market Value tool projects an average annual salary of $35.2 million for Mayfield—which it believes will translate to a four-year, $141.5 million deal. 

The 26-year-old will have the rest of the 2021 season to prove he's worth more. 

That begins on Week 1 when the Browns head to Kansas City in a measuring stick contest against the Chiefs. A loss might not say much about the season, but defeating Patrick Mahomes and the two-time AFC champions on the road would give Mayfield quite the head start at the bargaining table. 

Either way, the 2021 season is shaping up to be the most pivotal for Mayfield's future in Cleveland.