He was getting to the end of his deal and to move forward with him the Browns would need to commit some serious money. It was very similar to the Tua situation from my view. The concern being a commitment of franchise type money to him might be a huge mistake. To me it’s one of the worst situations for a team to be in. Miami paid, Dallas paid, did it work out? Meh….
He played hurt the year this was all going down and really declined. Which I imagine gave the Browns even more confidence in not investing franchise money.
I think what they said to themselves was I would rather pay an excessive amount for being sure than what amounts to a franchise deal and not be sure. In theory I would agree with this approach, but the problem is you can rarely be certain.
As many know they ended up missing completely and here we are. Baker is still the best Cleveland QB in several decades. He now gets to enjoy some nice weather and be with a professional franchise. Not a bad deal for him.