Baker Mayfield's relationship with Browns is broken

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The growing discord between the Browns and Baker Mayfield is getting messier by the day.

One day after the quarterback asked for a trade — which was shut down by Browns brass after they lost out on the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes — a report seemed to shed light on the state of things in Northeast Ohio.

“The relationship in the locker room with Baker Mayfield is broken,” ESPN Cleveland’s Tony Rizzo tweeted Friday.

Mayfield, the Brown’s first-overall pick in 2018, was also the subject of a lengthier ESPN report published Friday, with sources claiming the 26-year-old “had grown increasingly frustrated” with the organization over the past few years.

This week, Cleveland staffers met with Watson, the estranged Texans quarterback who wants out of Houston. Although the Browns won’t be moving forward with Watson — as of Friday afternoon, the Falcons and Saints remain in pursuit — a breaking point between the team and Mayfield had apparently been reached.

“It’s just sort of a cumulative effect,” a source told ESPN. “He’s ready to try to find somewhere else.”

In response to Tuesday’s news of a Browns-Watson meeting, Mayfield posted a statement that evening on social media, where he addressed “uncertainties” regarding his NFL future.

“I have no clue what happens next, which is the meaning behind the silence I had had during the duration of this process,” he wrote.

Mayfield is currently working his way back from a January surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left non-throwing shoulder. The quarterback played through the shoulder injury, among others, last season.

He finished the 2021 season completing 253 of 418 attempts for 3,010 yards with 17 touchdowns and 13 interceptions through 14 games. Mayfield also rushed 37 times for 134 yards and a touchdown.

Prior to Mayfield’s request for a trade Thursday afternoon, NFL Network reported a few hours earlier that the Browns viewed him as their quarterback going forward. At this month’s Combine, the organization told Mayfield’s agents “they’d only explore top-tier QBs such as Watson.”

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