Daniel Jeremiah says 'don't sleep on New England Patriots' for Baker Mayfield
NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah said not to sleep on the New England Patriots landing Baker Mayfield.
Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have mutual interest on a new contract, but there haven’t been any decisions. Jeremiah posed a question of the Patriots rebuilding faster with a veteran quarterback.
Naturally, the assumption is Mayfield goes back to Tampa Bay rather than elsewhere. But the Patriots are suddenly an intriguing option.
“I mean we’ve all assumed that Baker just goes right back to Tampa,” Jeremiah said on NFL Network during the Scouting Combine. “Don’t sleep on the New England Patriots. If the New England Patriots are in the Baker business, then the No. 3 pick is up for sale. And now the dominoes start going and we can really have some fun.
“Well, I mean, those teams were just talking about you know, 11, 12, 13,now all of a sudden, hey, let’s call New England and see if we can’t get up there and maybe get one of the guys that’s really at the top of the list.”
The Patriots could take a quarterback at No. 3 or sign Mayfield. If they sign Mayfield, then all of a sudden New England could draft someone like Marvin Harrison Jr. for an instant star wide receiver.
“I mean, that’s why it makes sense if you’re New England,” Jeremiah said. “Because they could just sit at three and take the quarterback but when you think about the cupboard being bare and needing guys. Now all of a sudden I get a veteran, now I can auction off No. 3 and all these holes I’ve got to fill, now I’ve got a boatload of picks to go fill them with.”
With Mayfield, it seems like New England has the option to draft Harrison Jr. or trade down and acquire more capital.
Another layer to this is that Mayfield and Mike Evans, one of the best receivers in the game, could be a package deal per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
“The Bucs are trying to re-sign this guy in a major way,” Fowler said on SportsCenter. “They’ve had preliminary talks, Mike Evans wants to retire a Buccaneer but I’m told he’s also willing, at least open to, the possibility of going to the open market because he would have a huge market. The Bucs now they gotta pay him well over $20 million per year … His game has not fallen off.
“And Baker Mayfield as he’s trying to resign with the Bucs. He’s watching Mike Evans’ deal closely. It could be sort of a package deal. They could both go their separate ways. A lot could happen, but the team is trying to keep them together.”