Baker Mayfield’s agent talks Browns not tipping their hand, and the Patriots’ heavy interest in him

Baker Mayfield’s agent, Jack Mills, appeared on “The Business of Sports” podcast with Andrew Brandt. The nearly hour-long interview is a good listen to gain some insight into their mindset throughout this whole process. You can listen to the episode here.

Around the 25-minute mark, Mills re-emphasizes what we heard on “Behind Baker (Episode 9),” which was that they did not feel he would be drafted any lower than third overall by the Jets. Mayfield just got the sense after working out with the Jets that they were in love with him, and were going to draft him if he was available.

As for the Browns? They liked Mayfield, but never tipped their hand. Never called in advance. Mills and Mayfield had no clue or further contact with the Browns until a few minutes were left on the clock, and GM John Dorsey called Mayfield to tell him he was going to be the pick.

Here is the new bit of information: Mills says that another team told them that the New England Patriots were thinking (at least at some point) of moving up to No. 2 overall if Mayfield was still available.

“Another team had said, ‘You may get a big surprise on draft day, at No. 2, if he’s available.’ And it was the Patriots. They had 23 and they had 31 and they had two seconds. We thought, ‘That’s gonna be a heck of a move, to get up that high from where they are.’ And of course he wasn’t available so we never knew if that was reality or not.”

Sometimes, if a team reaches for a quarterback, you hear a lot of stories come out after the fact that would mock the Browns, for example. But this has seemed like the opposite. After Mayfield was actually the pick, everything I’m seeing resembles the fact that “while the media wasn’t as high on Mayfield, he had clearly risen to the top quarterback of this class,” with a lot of that having to do with his intelligence.