If they ever were seriously interested in trading for Baker Mayfield -- or signing him if he were to be released by the Cleveland Browns -- the Carolina Panthers and Pittsburgh Steelers are seemingly out of the sweepstakes after selecting quarterbacks in the 2022 NFL Draft.
While there continues to be speculation about the the Seattle Seahawks and Detroit Lions as potential landing spots for Mayfield, it's unclear if either team is actually interested in the former No. 1 overall pick.
In an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, NFL Media's Daniel Jeremiah suggested another team that he thinks would make sense for Mayfield -- the New York Giants.
"... But the team that I mentioned was the Giants. You don't pick up the fifth-year option on Daniel Jones. I just think you come in there if you want to have a competition, maybe that gets the best out of Daniel Jones or maybe Baker comes in there and flat out beats him out and off you go. I know they've got Tyrod Taylor there as well. But I would say based off of accomplishments at their best in this league, Baker Mayfield has played at a higher level than those two guys have.
"So that was the team that stuck out to me. Now maybe Brian Daboll, first-year head coach ... Joe Schoen, first-year general manager ... maybe they don't want to deal with a quarterback controversy so to speak. But you could make a strong case that he could win that job."
On one hand, the Giants could probably acquire Mayfield without giving up much of anything. Mayfield's $18.58 million fifth-year option is fully guaranteed. If the Giants agreed to take on a small fraction of the financial commitment and sent a conditional late-round pick to the Browns, that likely would get a deal done. And a year ago, it would have been seen as a no-brainer to acquire Mayfield as an upgrade over Jones.
On the other hand, it's unclear if Mayfield would be a good solider if he lost the quarterback competition to Jones, who does have talent and a head start on learning Daboll's system.
There's also the history of Mayfield dissing the Giants' selection of Jones with the No. 6 overall pick in an interview ahead of the 2019 season, the rookie campaign for the incumbent quarterback for Big Blue.
"I cannot believe the Giants took Daniel Jones. It blows my mind," Mayfield said to GQ. "Some people overthink it. That’s where people go wrong. They forget you’ve gotta win."
While Mayfield said that his comments were taken out of context and that he and Jones have since squashed any animosity that may have existed between them, it would be another story entirely for the two to be competing for the same job, with the loser of the battle left to support the winner.
On top of all of that, it's not hard to imagine things getting ugly in the New York media market if Mayfield wasn't immediately successful as the quarterback for the Giants.
And poor Taylor -- who has seemingly never caught a break in over a decade in the NFL -- is probably hopeful not to lose his job to Mayfield for a second time in his career.
A year from now, we'll probably look back and say that the league undervalued Mayfield, who was seen as a top-half-of-the-league quarterback entering the 2021 season. But finding a landing spot for him has proven to be a difficult task, which is perhaps telling.
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