What You Need to Know:

• In addition to acquiring Deshaun Watson, the Browns also signed QB Jacoby Brissett and QB Joshua Dobbs in free agency.
• Mayfield had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder in mid-January. He was expected to have a 4-6 month recovery timeline and be ready for training camp.
• Post-surgery reports said the team expected Mayfield to begin light throwing in April and take part in spring minicamps on a limited basis. The arrival of Watson and clear plan to move on from Mayfield has clouded that stage of his recovery.
• Mayfield injured the shoulder in Week 2 of last season but played through it until they finally shut him down after the Week 17 loss at Pittsburgh.
• His weekly Pro Football Focus passing grades for the 2021 season seem to line up with a guy playing through worsening shoulder trouble:

• For the season, Mayfield ranked just 26th in passing grade among 35 QBs with 200+ dropbacks. He ranked 8th in 2020, 18th in 2019 and 11th as a 2018 rookie.
• Last year also found Mayfield hitting a career high in the amount of pressure that turned into sacks. According to PFF, his 29.1% rate led the league. He finished the previous 3 seasons 19th, tied for 11th, and 24th.
• Cleveland fell from 1st in PFF pass-blocking grade in 2020 to 11th last season. Football Outsiders found the Browns dropping from 17th in adjusted sack rate in 2020 to 30th in 2021.
• Mayfield has finished just 1 of 4 seasons inside the top 20 at the position in fantasy points per game.
• QB Baker Mayfield has the "inside track" for the Panthers' starting job, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

Draft Sharks Bottom Line:

We can assess Mayfield’s readiness and surrounding talent once we know where he’ll play this season. He has been a better real-life QB than this offseason seems to be crediting, but we also might not yet know his true market because of the injury recovery and chance that teams are simply waiting on Cleveland to release him. Mayfield also hasn’t done anything fantasy wise worth getting excited about yet. So he’ll need a good landing spot to make a significant impact. There would be upside to landing in either Seattle or Carolina. The Seahawks seem most likely at this point.