CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Quarterback Baker Mayfield has a new home in North Carolina as he begins his journey following his trade from the Browns to the Panthers last week, and on Tuesday, Mayfield spoke publicly for the first time since the trade in a team press conference.
Watch video from the news conference provided by ABC News below:
Before the press conference, the Panthers released an article from their team media where Mayfield addressed what many fans have their eye on as well—the Week 1 game between the Panthers and Browns.
"I'm not going to sit here and be a robot and tell you that's not one I've marked on the calendar already," Mayfield told the team. "One, that's not who I am. To me, it's about winning games. Whoever we have marked on the schedule, I'm going to try to win. Obviously, this one has a little more history and personal meaning, but for me, it's about winning and setting the tone for the rest of the year, and however I can help this team do that, I'm going to do."
During the presser, Mayfield expanded on that thought.
"Obviously, it's going to be a special one. It's going to be a home game and playing against a former team—a similar situation of what I've gone through in the past and transferring from college to college," he said. "So got to handle it the best way possible."
To do that, Mayfield has been rehabbing after the surgery he had to repair a torn labrum he suffered last season with the Browns. The injury was so severe there were countless times as the season went on that the team was questioned about continuing to put Mayfield out on the field, wondering why backup Case Keenum wasn't utilized to let Mayfield rest.
That option was something, even if head coach Kevin Stefanski had decided upon, Mayfield wouldn't have wanted, highlighting Mayfield's desire to be on the field despite the ailment.
"When it comes to a shoulder, I'm not one for excuses because I was too stubborn to come out anyway," Mayfield said.
Now, after the issues he saw following the injury, and some stemming from before it, the quarterback has hired QB coach Jeff Christensen to help work on his throwing motion and form.
"My throwing motion was extremely violent. So that was probably the most hindering reason why," Mayfield said. "I've made some small changes and worked with a great QB coach, Jeff Christensen, that he's helped me get back to a form that—I haven't thrown the ball this well in a long time and the throwing motion looks a little different and thankful for that."
It's work that many hoped Mayfield would be doing to improve while under center in Cleveland, but instead will be used against them, should he be the starter Week 1. That possibility, however, is in no way set in stone by the Panthers. The team isn't looking at Mayfield as the future of their franchise at this point the way that the Browns did when they drafted him. Instead, Mayfield will be in an open competition with Sam Darnold for the starting job, according to general manager Scott Fitterer.
"This is an open competition. The reason why we added Baker was to make the group better as a whole," Fitterer said. "With Baker being out there, having the conversations, it made sense for us, I think the competition is going to make Sam better. Sam, really had a nice spring for us, stepped up, showed a lot of edge, threw the ball really well and I think competition would be good for him. The good for PJ [Walker], it's good for Matt Corral, the young guy that's going to be in the room learning—and it's good for Baker. This is a fresh start for him. So I think overall this is a very healthy situation for us all to be in."
As for the process of bringing Mayfield into Carolina, it didn't happen overnight. As News 5 reported previously, the Panthers had been strong candidates in trade talks for Baker since the team acquired Watson. Fitterer described the months-long talks between himself, Browns general manager Andrew Berry, Mayfield and his representation.
"This is a really long process. It went throughout—over—a couple of months. And it really started off with Andrew Berry and myself talking about what's it going to take to make a deal, what is the right price to pay, who's involved, what's the competition here, what are we bidding against," Fitterer said.
Getting a deal done came down to money, and the market for Mayfield wasn't as strong as it may have become closer to training camp, giving the Panthers and Browns flexibility to work out the financials and come to a number that made sense to all three parties—eventually landing on the Panthers paying about $5 million of his salary, the Browns on the hook for around $10.5 million and Mayfield himself trimming $3.5 million (which he hopes to make up for in incentives from the Panthers) from his base salary to get the deal done.
Mayfield said that he worked with his agents and had plenty of discussions before deciding on the number to trim from his salary to get the deal done, echoing his words at his youth football camp in Norman, Oklahoma last month when he said he thought both he and the Browns were ready to move on from each other.
"For me, it was about the next steps forward in finding a new place, somewhere that wanted me, somewhere that I would be able to go in and compete and have a fresh start somewhere. So that's where that all came from," Mayfield said.
Before March, however, Mayfield had every intention of wearing orange and brown in 2022.
"Shocked, I'd say it was pretty much the only way to describe it," Mayfield said. "But you roll with the punches and you got to move forward. This is a test of adversity and how I'm going to handle it and how I can move forward and be the best teammate possible with our new home and looking forward to it."
While he won't be wearing orange and brown, he will continue wearing the same number in Carolina after making a deal with Panthers punter Johnny Hekker.
"Six is special to me, not because it was ever my favorite number—it was the number I was given as a walk-on at Texas Tech. And when I transferred the people of Oklahoma thought it was my favorite number so they just gave it to me again, and so it's just stuck with me," Mayfield said. "To me, it kind of symbolizes my story, my history with that, and I truly enjoy being able to represent that. And it's something special to me now."
Now in Carolina with a new playbook in his hands, new threads on his back and a new role to embrace, the Browns and Mayfield have officially parted ways—but at the end of the day, no matter how things played out, the former No. 1 overall pick remains fond of Browns fans and the city where he began his NFL career.
"No animosity towards Cleveland. It's a football town that gave me the first four years of my career and thankful for those trials, and tribulations, all the challenges, a lot to learn from and look back on and reflect," Mayfield said. "The fans in Cleveland are what make that town so great. It's a special sports town. They care about their Browns, tradition-rich, and generations of families that have been Browns fans for life. And so that's what made it so special."
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Camryn Justice is a reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on Twitter @camijustice.
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