Report: Steelers interested in Baker Mayfield only as free agent

Baker Mayfield is looking to be traded, and there is one team within his division that has interest in him. But that reported interest is under one condition.

Longtime Browns reporter Mary Kay Cabot spoke on the “Orange and Brown Talk” podcast for an episode published on Monday. During the episode, Cabot said the Pittsburgh Steelers would love to have Mayfield. But that’s only if Cleveland cuts him first.

“The Steelers will pounce on Baker Mayfield if he becomes available,” Cabot said (5:40 mark). “Like if they cut him and he’s just out there as a street free agent, [the Steelers] would take him in a minute. And I’m sure a lot of people would. If you could get him for nothing, and the Browns have to eat that money, then certainly somebody would go grab him in that scenario.”

That’s a big “if.”

The problem with Mayfield is that he’s in the middle-of-the-pack as a quarterback. He could be good, he could be bad, but he’s not in that Patrick Mahomes/Josh Allen category among young quarterbacks. So teams might prefer to tank rather than get Mayfield only to be a mediocre team. The other issue is that the Browns would want some trade compensation for Mayfield, but teams are apparently reluctant to send any draft capital for the quarterback.

Pittsburgh has Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph. Mayfield would at minimum provide competition, and in all likelihood, beat out the others to win the starting job if they added him. But that would take Cleveland cutting Mayfield first, which they would loathe to do. Mayfield would take up nearly $19 million in dead cap money for 2022 if cut.

Mayfield’s future is a very interesting case. It will be fun to see where he ends up, especially if it’s within the division.