Did Browns want Baker Mayfield to play poorly to justify replacing him?

One didn't need to be a doctor to realize that Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield visibly played with multiple injuries throughout the 2021 NFL season. Mayfield suffered a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder in the Week 2 home win over the Houston Texans and was later seen limping on fields during November and December games. 

The Browns have since acquired star signal-caller Deshaun Watson and are looking to trade Mayfield to any team willing to accept the $18.858 million of fully guaranteed salary for 2022 attached to the 27-year-old's contract. For a piece published Thursday, ESPN's Jake Trotter detailed much of what went wrong for Mayfield and the Browns during this past campaign and also added an interesting note about what is destined to become the quarterback's final in-game appearance with the team that drafted him first overall in 2018. 

Mayfield endured nine sacks in the Jan. 3 "Monday Night Football" loss at the rival Pittsburgh Steelers and later openly questioned why head coach Kevin Stefanski would not give rookie tackle James Hudson "a whole lot of help" against Pittsburgh star pass-rusher and eventual NFL Defensive Player of the Year T.J. Watt. 

"According to multiple sources, those close to Mayfield — who to that point had missed one game because of his shoulder injury — wondered at the time if the Browns were trying to make Mayfield look as hapless as possible in prime time, to potentially pave the way for the franchise to more easily explain why it might be moving on from him in the offseason," Trotter reports.

Trotter wrote that a Browns spokesperson declined to comment on that theory. 

What's done is done. Even if Watson receives a suspension related to the 22 civil lawsuits regarding allegations of sexual misconduct that hover over his status, the Browns signed journeyman Jacoby Brissett and would have him serve as their temporary starter this fall. 

Mayfield, meanwhile, may be stuck with Cleveland until a different team loses a quarterback to injury or until his employer decides that cutting him is the only realistic conclusion to the situation.