Baker Mayfield, Browns both want divorce but these obstacles remain

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A new week dawns in the 2022 NFL offseason and Baker Mayfield remains property of the Cleveland Browns.

And that’s both surprising and awkward because the Browns don’t want Mayfield. After all, they’ve got Deshaun Watson now.

And Mayfield doesn’t want the Browns. After all, he’d like to start proving himself somewhere else.

Both sides have been feeding mean factoids and opinions about the other to the media for a while now. So this is an ugly divorce in every way except for the formal court papers.

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Cleveland Browns' Baker Mayfield warms up before an NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers Saturday, Dec. 25, 2021, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)

And yet Baker Mayfield is still a Cleveland Brown.

How could this happen?

Let’s examine:

The Browns want to trade Mayfield but as recently as last week, according to a league source, were holding firm on "their asking price." So the Browns don’t want their former No. 1 overall selection on their team anymore but want to get a certain value to trade him because they believe he would be valuable to someone.

This is hardball. Because basically the Browns have so far declined to come significantly off their asking price for Mayfield even though every other team in the league knows Mayfield cannot be on the Browns in 2022 and that, barring a trade, the Browns would have to cut Mayfield.

"The Browns have been acting like they have leverage," the source who declined to specify Cleveland’s asking price told OutKick, "and right now they really don’t. Maybe down the road if someone gets injured and a team has a major void, but not right now."