Are we all misremembering Baker Mayfield's journey? Let's get MVP candidate's story straight

Baker Mayfield is firmly within the MVP conversation more than a third of the way through the 2025 NFL season, and that makes for one of the most remarkable turnarounds for a player in recent NFL history considering the former No. 1 overall pick was dispatched by two teams not that long ago.

While the story is spectacular, I believe there has been some misremembering of how we all got here. With the benefit of hindsight and excluding context, it is easy to say the Cleveland Browns should have never given up on Mayfield after four years. And it could be fair to jeer at the Carolina Panthers for not making it a year with Mayfield.

But the truth is the NFL collective, given multiple chances over the course of the early 2020s, could have had Mayfield under their employ for a day-three draft pick or a base salary of $5 million. And several times over, other teams stuck with their aging veteran, or focused on the draft, or chose to spend their money elsewhere instead of on the former top pick who is now playing at an elite level for the 5-1 Buccaneers.

Why Cleveland exiled Mayfield

Let's get this out of the way early: the Browns are forever on the hook for what has become the worst trade in NFL history. Cleveland believed Deshaun Watson would be an upgrade at quarterback over Mayfield -- something just about every NFL talent evaluator would have agreed upon at the time -- and sent three first-round picks and more to Houston to sign Watson to the largest fully guaranteed contract in league history -- something not many across the league would have done at the time.

Four years after being the top pick in Cleveland, Mayfield was immediately rendered expendable in March 2022 when the Browns made that transaction. He could no longer be a member of the Browns, and everyone knew it.

The Browns, meanwhile, have gotten a handful of good games out of Watson's 19 starts, a couple season-ending injuries, a lot of embarrassment and a bevy of day-three picks spent on quarterbacks who have either proven they aren't the future or have the rest of this season to do so.

How'd it get to the point where Mayfield couldn't stay in Cleveland after being taken with the top pick in 2018? Mayfield brought the first -- and, to this point, only -- playoff victory to this iteration of the Cleveland Browns in the playoffs following the 2020 season. That strong play encouraged GM Andrew Berry and the organization to exercise Mayfield's fifth-year option for the 2022 season.

But 2021 was a miserable year for the Browns and continued Mayfield's up-and-down play across his rookie contract. Cleveland hovered around .500 most of the season as Mayfield played through injuries. Mayfield dealt with shoulder ailments through the year and, feeling the pressure of performing for a contract (according to sources), tried to grit his way through it.

Odell Beckham Jr. more or less forced his way out of Cleveland in part thanks to his father sharing videos on social media of Mayfield not locating his wide-open son on the field. The Browns had to release Beckham, who went on to flourish with the Rams en route to a Super Bowl victory.

Mayfield's personality, at times, clashed with people in the Browns building. When the wins aren't coming, that can rub people the wrong way. And Mayfield acknowledged as much years later, just this past week.

"Early on in my career it was 'cocky, immature.' Now it's 'moxie' and 'he's a dog,'" Mayfield said last week. "Same shit, different day. As long as you play well, they change the narrative, but you've just got to be yourself, and I've always been like that."

Had Cleveland not gotten Watson, it is very possible the Browns go into the 2022 season with Mayfield, in a make-or-break year, with emotions frayed on all sides and relationships fractured. Berry, the GM, had done his homework on all the draftable quarterbacks and even if Cleveland selected one, that rookie wouldn't have been a true challenge to Mayfield to start the year. Would Mayfield have had a season that commanded a long-term extension, or even a franchise tag? We'll never know.

Cleveland made the ill-fated move for Watson in the 2022 offseason believing it had found a marked improvement at the position. And Mayfield was clearly on the trading block with an $18.858 million contract for the season.

Few options for Mayfield on way out of Cleveland

No one outside of Carolina seemed to want him. Go back to that offseason and revisit the moves, a real who's who of bad-to-mediocre quarterback play: 

• Once Atlanta's pursuit of Watson became known, Matt Ryan and his big contract went to Indianapolis for a third-round pick, with Nick Foles backing him up. The Falcons decided to roll with Marcus Mariota and later drafted Desmond Ridder. 
• The Titans cruised into what would be their final year with Ryan Tannehill and spent a third-round pick on Malik Willis. 
• Mitchell Trubisky signed a two-year deal with Pittsburgh before the Steelers selected Kenny Pickett as the first quarterback in the draft. 
• The Raiders gave Derek Carr a three-year extension. 
• The Commanders dealt two third-round picks to acquire Carson Wentz. 
• The Broncos sold the farm for Russell Wilson. 
• The Seahawks went with Geno Smith and Drew Lock. 
• And the Saints re-signed Jameis Winston and signed Andy Dalton.

Not even one of those players remains on those teams today.

At that point the Panthers had been trying to figure out what to do without Cam Newton for three seasons. Hell, Carolina ran through so many options that it even brought Newton back hoping it would work again.

Matt Rhule's Way of the Panther led Carolina to Mayfield, who had to eat some of his contract in order to facilitate the trade. The Browns also had to pay down some of his deal. The Panthers sent a conditional fifth-round pick to Cleveland to get Mayfield and pay less than $5 million of his salary. It took both sides until a few weeks before training camp for them to agree to terms, meaning Mayfield missed all of spring work.

That's right. The top-two MVP candidate today had to take a paycut in order to be traded to the only other NFL team that wanted him three years ago.

Mayfield battled with Sam Darnold for the starting job and won, but Carolina was not a good football team. Rhule was fired after Mayfield's fifth start and a 1-4 open, and Mayfield was sidelined with a high ankle sprain. By the time he came back, the Panthers had no offensive identity and eventually released him the first week of December.

"He wasn't the right offensive-wise and with the scheme," one coach on the Panthers staff tells CBS Sports. "We traded for him in the summer right before training camp. He is more of a shotgun QB in my opinion, and we had him under center a lot."

A different Carolina source pointed to some personal turmoil Mayfield was dealing with at the time that eventually became public. Last year, Mayfield sued his father's company alleging a failure to repay millions of dollars stolen from him.

According to the lawsuit, Mayfield had $12 million stolen from him between 2018 and 2021 by a company operated by his father and brother. That lawsuit was filed last November.

"He was dealing with that off the field… and the coaching change didn't help," a Panthers source said.

Mayfield's brief flash with McVay

The day after Carolina waived him, the Rams claimed Mayfield and gave him a crash course on the playbook with Matthew Stafford dealing with a spinal cord injury. When John Wolford was ineffective on Thursday Night Football against the Raiders, Sean McVay inserted Mayfield in a game that has since become legend. Mayfield won the game 17-16 over Las Vegas (though it didn't count as an official quarterback win since Wolford started) and has been used as a turning point in Mayfield's career.

Indeed, Mayfield learned plenty under McVay, and the quarterback has credited McVay with helping him love the game again. But Mayfield would go 1-3 as a starter with the Rams -- who were also down Cooper Kupp and Aaron Donald down the stretch -- with their only win coming in the Christmas massacre of the Broncos that served as Nathaniel Hackett's final game as a head coach.

With Stafford being the unquestioned leader of the Rams, and with Mayfield having higher aspirations than backup duty, a return to Los Angeles wasn't in the cards for the 2023 season. And so again, ahead of free agency and the draft, all NFL teams were aware that Mayfield was available.

Mayfield not a slam-dunk Bucs starter

The Buccaneers came calling after Tom Brady retired officially, again. They had Kyle Trask on the roster but needed more in the quarterback room. Tampa GM Jason Licht offered Mayfield a one-year, $4 million contract with some incentives to come to the Bucs and compete with Trask for the starting job ahead of the 2023 season.

That's right. The top-two MVP candidate today had to split first-team reps two years ago with a player who, at that point, had nine career pass attempts and who today is not signed to a team.

To Bucs coaches, Mayfield was clearly the better option. Some thought the "competition" was more due diligence than anything, considering Tampa had spent a second-round pick on Trask in 2021 when it was unclear how long Brady would keep playing.

But Mayfield practiced poorly at times during that camp, according to sources. He threw several interceptions and had bad footwork as he settled into another new environment on a prove-it contract.

We know what has happened since. Mayfield led the Bucs to the playoffs in 2023, was a play or two away from the NFC title game and wound up earning nearly $6.9 million when totaling incentives he reached. He went to the Pro Bowl that year for the first time in his career, and he signed a three-year contract worth up to $100 million with the Bucs in March 2023.

Mayfield followed that up with another Pro Bowl and playoff season last year, setting career highs in completion percentage and passing touchdowns. He even registered on the NFL MVP voting with an 11th place finish.

This year, with his third Bucs offensive coordinator in three years, Mayfield has put together four fourth-quarter game-winning comebacks and drives in six games. He has 12 passing touchdowns to just one interception, good for the best touchdown-to-interception ratio in the league through six weeks. And his 108.5 passer rating is the best of his career, all doing it without Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Tristan Wirfs and Bucky Irving for some collection of games.

Today the Bucs are at the top of the NFC and are 2 1/2 games up in the division in what would be a record five straight NFC South titles. If Mayfield remains on this trajectory, not only could an NFL MVP be in his sights, but league sources believe he will be in line for another major payday.

The Buccaneers wouldn't want to go into the 2026 season with Mayfield in the final year of his deal that currently has a $51.9 million cap hit. What would be the going rate for a quarterback who has led two franchises to four separate postseasons in an NFL where one playoff win (or even appearance) can get you $50 million plus per year? Mayfield is 30 years old and his play is only getting better with each passing season.

Cleveland drafted a great player in 2018 but it didn't work out in the long term. Who knows if Mayfield would be the MVP candidate he is today in Tampa had he stayed with the Browns over those years.

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The Browns and Panthers each had Mayfield and willingly let him go. But any team that didn't have an entrenched starter -- and that is about half the league -- had every opportunity to go after him and declined.

That's Tampa Bay's gain, and Mayfield's story gets even better.