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The Cleveland Browns thought they were out of the running for Deshaun Watson, and they were prepared to have Baker Mayfield back as their starting quarterback in 2022. However, Mayfield soon asked for a trade after Watson initially told the Browns they were out of the running, and Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com says the quarterback was prepared for a lengthy holdout to get what he wanted.
With Mayfield showing no intention of playing for Cleveland, the Browns upped the ante in their pursuit of Watson, ultimately securing his services by giving him a fully guaranteed $230 million deal and offering up three first-round picks plus more. Cleveland was desperate given the crumbling Mayfield situation, leading to them going all in on Watson.
Mayfield was clearly miffed by the Browns' pursuit of Watson, and it didn't help that a comment from ESPN's Chris Mortensen about how Cleveland wanted an “adult” at quarterback went public. Watson is currently dealing with 22 civil lawsuits as part of a sexual assault scandal, so the “adult” comment coming as the Browns pursued Watson didn't sit well with Mayfield given the circumstances.
Now that Watson is in fact on board, Cleveland will obviously be trading Mayfield. He would like to play for the Indianapolis Colts, but it's unclear just how interested they are in a deal. Whatever happens, things really got ugly between Baker Mayfield and the Browns, which apparently helped the franchise in their Deshaun Watson pursuit. Stay tuned to see how this saga plays out.
