Why the Saints should consider signing Baker Mayfield

With what certainly will be the most interesting and quite frankly a pivotal offseason in the Dennis Allen era the New Orleans Saints have to get it right this offseason. It’s no secret since Drew Brees retired after the 2020 NFL season that the Saints have struggled to replace the future Hall of Famer, going through 5 different quarterbacks in just two seasons is a troubling sign of things to come if the Saints don’t get it right this offseason. Derek Carr who for all intensive purposes should be the top target for the team isn’t a guarantee now that he’s a free agent, and as much as I love Tennessee rookie quarterback Hendon Hooker one I don’t trust this staff to develop a rookie quarterback and two seeing how this is a make or break year for both head coach Dennis Allen and offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael I don’t see them banking their careers on a rookie coming off a torn ACL. Now this is where things get interesting. Let’s assume Aaron Rodgers ends up staying in Green Bay thus forcing the New York Jets and Saints to get into a bidding war which I’d think the Jets could easily outbid the Saints in this scenario.

With QB being the top priority this offseason, should the Saints take a chance Baker Mayfield? Canal Street Chronicles ran a poll on Twitter to get Saints fans thoughts on what the team should do at the position and only 6% of Saints fans think so.

Let's take a look at Mayfield, who has had a rather rough start to his NFL career after being the 1st overall pick back in 2018 draft.

First, in all fairness you have to look at Baker’s career in Cleveland objectively. Meaning I don’t think all of what happened in Cleveland falls on the shoulders of Baker Mayfield. In 2020, which was his best season career wise when he took the Cleveland Browns to an 11-5 record and posted a career high QBR of 65.5 along with a quarterback rating of 95.5 a completion percentage of 62.8 and 26 touchdowns to 8 interceptions. To give you a better idea and something to compare that off of last year Andy Dalton put up a rating of 95.2 and a QBR of 50.7 ,18 touchdowns to 9 interceptions, so fast-forward to 2021 where Mayfield suffered a partially torn labrum in his left shoulder in the Browns season opener and played the entire season in what was surely a letdown season for Cleveland. Understand the current regime had no real ties to Baker since they did not draft him, and schematically the Browns didn’t fit Baker’s style of play so moving shouldn’t have been a total shock as many teams in the NFL do so often.

After being traded to and being eventually let go by the Carolina Panthers earlier last season, Baker Mayfield signed with the Los Angeles Rams in Week 13. He was thrusted into the lineup on Thursday night against the Las Vegas Raiders leading an impressive 98-yard game winning drive with an injury riddled Rams offense and seemingly showed us there is still something left in the former Oklahoma Sooner. Sure having Sean McVay does matter, but in his last 5 games with the Rams, Mayfield posted 850 yards with a completion percentage of 63.6 4 touchdowns to 2 interceptions and a quarterback rating of 86.4. In the end, I still do believe that Baker Mayfield has maybe received the Alex Smith type of treatment when it comes to a guy who was just surrounded by disfunction and never got a fair shot in both Cleveland and Carolina. I’m not saying he’s going to be an MVP caliber quarterback, but to say he can produce as a top 15/20 quarterback in this league isn’t a crazy statement especially when you consider just how awful the NFC South looks that might just be enough to win the division. Not to mention Baker is probably the easiest to acquire in terms of money. He’ll cost a third of what Derek Carr will cost and at the end of the day watch the tape Baker has had some rough moments in his young career, however he has shown me enough to consider signing him to a one year heavily incentive based deal to see what the guy can do.

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