Given Alex Van Pelt Browns Connection, Should Patriots Sign Baker Mayfield?
Three weeks after the news broke that the New England Patriots hired Jerod Mayo as their new coach, he quickly found his three coordinators. This included the long-awaited hiring of offensive coordinator after Bill O’Brien’s return to Foxboro, which lasted just one season before he fled to the college ranks for the same job at Ohio State. However, with Mayo’s hiring of now-former Cleveland Browns coordinator Alex Van Pelt, fans can finally get a sense of what things will look like offensively in New England. Given Van Pelt’s coaching ties to the West Coast offense, he is expected to bring a similar system to Foxboro… and maybe a veteran quarterback? Despite the recent hints from Mayo that the Patriots will use their No. 3 overall pick in the NFL Draft, Van Pelt is expected to have a “heavy hand” in picking who is under center next season, per NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport.
This could open the possibility of the Patriots targeting a familiar face for Van Pelt in current Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield. The two spent time together in Cleveland, albeit for three seasons, before Mayfield was traded to the Carolina Panthers in the ensuing offseason.
Although that trade may suggest that Mayfield wasn’t the guy that Browns coach Kevin Stefanski and Van Pelt envisioned as their franchise quarterback, the former No. 1 overall pick could make the latter think again after a resurgent season with the Buccaneers. Following a rocky 2022, where the Panthers released Mayfield after a 1-5 start to their season, he signed with the Los Angeles Rams, who needed quarterback help after injuries sidelined Matthew
Stafford. Mayfield would spend the remainder of the season in L.A. working with Sean McVay and performed well enough to land a contract with the Buccaneers last offseason in free agency. Despite having the big shoes of former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in Tampa, Mayfield didn’t let that stop him from having a career year. The 28-year-old threw for 4,044 yards, 28 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions in 17 games as he led the Buccaneers to a 9-8 regular season record.
