>>150113209
For some reason the Browns seemed convinced they actually had a super loaded team because they were looking at Mayfield like he was the weak link, which is just fucking funny in retrospect. But if their heads were that far up their asses they probably thought they were Watson's preferred destination and at worst they'd have to match the other offers but not blow them out of the water.
I don't think they just dump Mayfield for a whole lot of nothing unless they felt supremely confident about the Watson signing. Then when they got a reality check and realized he was prepared to go elsewhere they got backed into a corner and had to offer him whatever he wanted because he was the only marquee qb free agent and signing some ancient vet to a cheap deal after trading away your young #1 pick would seem like giving up on their delusional contender status.
And the real Ironic part is signing a vet for a cheap deal actually did work out with them with Flacco so they should have just done that and they'd still have a bunch of picks and cap space instead of Watson's useless ass