Even if he was/is staying he is going to opt out of the contract as it has no guaranteed money.

Brent Soboleski formerly of USA today and now at the bleacher report has reported that the Browns are still in play to retain Mack as he likes Hugh Jackson and Farmer is gone. The way Farmer conducted the transition tag really pissed Mack off evidently. Not that he got tagged but the WAY it happened.

Near the end of this interview is the part I am referencing.

http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2016/01/29/brent-sobleski-from-bleacher-report-talks-the-senior-bowl-jared-goff-or-carson-wentz-at-2-and-nfl-teams-on-the-move-in-2017/

I think there are 2 positives going for us on Mack.

#1, he said he is not making his decision until after the Superbowl. That alone is important because it means that he’s thinking about it still. If he wanted out of Cleveland so bad, he’d just opt out and hit the market immediately. But he didn’t, so that means he’s considering staying.

#2 If it’s a money issue, he isn’t going anywhere. His contract with us has him as the highest paid center in the league. It’s highly doubtful anyone matches or exceeds what we’re giving him. VERY HIGHLY DOUBTFUL. If money is his biggest motivator, Cleveland pays him more than anyone else, so he’d be taking a pay cut to go anywhere else.

the dude wrote:

The 3rd is that we drafted a center…..who has struggled playing guard. This position may have made him worse. I am not a coach, so he could do better perhaps in his college role.
It was a very disappointing year for Erving. My hope is that he will build during the offseason and be able to turn into a very valuable player. Lots of players struggle in their first year in the NFL. Hopefully, this is his case.

Hopefully the real o-line coach we hired can correct that. The line’s biggest problem this year was that lose r beating his wife as the season began. We lost our o-line coach and that crushed the line’s cohesiveness.