With Copper Brown getting back from a gathering with hopefuls to be a future quarterback, present quarterback Deshaun Watson posted a press release on social media Tuesday night time thanking the Metropolis of Cleveland and its followers for “actually embracing who I’m.”
Mayfield wrote as an introduction to his letter to Cleveland and posted it on Instagram and Twitter accounts.
“The previous 4 years have been nothing in need of actually life altering since I heard my identify was known as within the draft to go to Cleveland. This isn’t a message with hidden which means. That is to heartily thank the Metropolis of Cleveland for embracing my household,” he mentioned. This course of goes by means of all of the ups and downs.
“I do not know what’s going to occur subsequent, which is the which means behind the silence I’ve had in the course of the length of this course of. I can solely management what I can, which is to belief God’s plan all through this course of. I’ve given this privilege every little thing I’ve. That is one thing I used to be I at all times do it at each stage and at each degree. And that will not change wherever I take the following photograph. No matter occurs… I simply wish to say thanks to the followers who’ve actually embraced who I’m and the mindset that goes so properly with the arduous working folks of this metropolis.
“Cleveland will at all times be part of Emily and my story. We are going to at all times be grateful for the influence she has made and can make in our lives. Sincerely, Baker Reagan Mayfield.”
Brown traveled to Houston on Tuesday to steer Watson to waive the no-trade clause to come back to Cleveland, a league supply instructed ESPN. The Browns are certainly one of 4 groups, together with the New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons, who’re making an attempt to land the Watson in a commerce with the Texans. Watson has already met with Saints and Panthers and is scheduled to satisfy with the Hawks on Wednesday.
Watson did not play in any respect final season after an low season request to be traded and 22 civil lawsuits towards him alleging sexual assault and inappropriate habits throughout massages surfaced. A grand jury in Texas on Friday dismissed prison fees towards Watson, signaling the top of prison proceedings regarding him in Harris County, the place Houston is.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Tony Busby, instructed KHOU 11. Previous to assembly Brown on Tuesday, Watson answered questions on two of the 22 lawsuits towards him throughout ongoing affidavits. Two periods of testimony started on Friday.
Browns basic supervisor Andrew Perry and coach Kevin Stefansky have publicly introduced that Mayfield will stay the quarterback, by means of the NFL’s scouting affiliation in Indianapolis.
“We absolutely count on that Baker will likely be our starter and that he’ll get better,” Berry mentioned in January.
However that equation appeared to alter on Friday when the grand jury refused to indict Watson, leaving Mayfield’s future in limbo with the franchise chosen #1 total within the 2018 draft.
Mayfield skilled a tumultuous and risky interval in Cleveland over the course of 4 seasons. He performed underneath 4 totally different coaches throughout his first three seasons within the league. Regardless of this, Mayfield led Cleveland to their first playoff win in 26 years in the course of the 2020 season.
However within the second week of the 2023 season, he tore his left shoulder, and struggled the remainder of the way in which. He ended up twenty seventh within the league in QBR, because the Browns missed the playoffs and completed with a disappointing 8-9.
Mayfield, who underwent surgical procedure to restore the fissure on January 19 and is predicted to be absolutely cleared properly earlier than coaching camp, is getting into the ultimate yr of his start-up deal, which can pay him $19 million in 2023.
