NFL Draft Trade Idea: Buccaneers Get Browns' Baker Mayfield

Could Tampa Bay find their quarterback of the future on Day 3 of the 2022 NFL Draft?

Every time a passer is drafted outside of the first round of an NFL Draft, it seems the player inevitably gets compared to Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.

Certainly, you've heard someone say, 'If Tom Brady can get drafted in the sixth round, then (insert player) can be great too.'

Tom Brady's legend has only grown since joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2020.

Tom Brady's rise to multi-time Super Bowl champion is like nothing seen before in NFL history.

Every quarterback drafted is compared to Tom Brady, who built the most successful career in NFL history despite being a sixth-round pick in the 2000 NFL Draft.

READ MORE: Tom Brady knows the end is near

While it's an accurate statement, it has yet to come true once performance separates draft status and career achievement. 

So when a player like Baker Mayfield is selected with the first overall pick by a team like the Cleveland Browns, the expectations are astronomical. 

And sometimes the pressure and hype are too much to handle, for the player and the team. 

When this happens, a change of scenery is often times the result with new coaches coming in before the player is ultimately sent elsewhere to try and recover the once high hopes surrounding their NFL career. 

For Mayfield, that scene could become Tampa, Florida. As proposed by Mike Tannenbaum on the33rdteam.com. 

"Let Baker sit for a year and learn as much wisdom from Tom Brady and Byron Leftwich as possible," Tannenbaum wrote. "Let him use this season as an investment in his future and take in all the gifts that Tom has to give in terms of professionalism and preparation. This would be very similar to what Mitch Trubisky did this past season with Buffalo."

Tannenbaum proposes the Bucs send a 2022 4th Round pick to the Browns in exchange for their suddenly expendable quarterback while agreeing to keep some of his remaining base salary in the process.

Mayfield has thrown for over 14,000 yards in his four years since being the first pick of the 2018 NFL Draft and has a 92/56 touchdown pass to interception ratio. 

He even helped the franchise that drafted him to get their first postseason win in 15 years, and the Browns have won no fewer than six games per season with Mayfield after winning just 15 in the four years before his arrival, combined.

Baker Mayfield was selected with the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Baker Mayfield quarterbacked the Cleveland Browns to their first postseason win in over a decade.

Baker Mayfield, now the odd man out in Cleveland, could land with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in an NFL Draft day trade.

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Given what Cleveland had been through before Mayfield arrived, he should probably be getting a key to the city, instead of being replaced by former Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson. 

In this case, though, the Browns' lack of appreciation can turn into good fortune for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Mayfield, who could find a quarterback of the future and a situation better than any Cleveland gave him in the past four years if Tannenbaum's trade comes to life. 

For more on this and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers check out James Yarcho and David Harrison on the Locked On Bucs Podcast!