Shortly after arriving at Bank of America on Monday morning for the start of another work week, Baker Mayfield learned he’d received the title most thought was a fait accompli since July 6 when the Browns agreed to pay him to play for Carolina:
Panthers’ starting quarterback.
Mayfield called to share the news with his wife, Emily, who was packing up their house in Cleveland.
“So I’m in the doghouse right now for not helping her,” Mayfield said, smiling. “God bless her.”
The Mayfields didn’t move to Charlotte so Baker could be a backup. Nor did Matt Rhule bring him here as a clipboard carrier behind Sam Darnold.
But Rhule was insistent on not just handing the job to Mayfield, who agreed to take a pay cut to leave Cleveland, where he’d been supplanted by Deshaun Watson. So the Panthers engaged in an “open competition” for four weeks, which was as much about maintaining locker room harmony as much as anything.
But anyone who had watched Rhule cycle through Teddy Bridgewater and then Darnold his first two seasons could predict where this was headed.
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