In an alternate universe, the Giants could have traded the No. 2 overall pick in the draft to ... the New England Patriots?
Jack Mills, Baker Mayfield's agent, said on a podcast that if Mayfield were available at No. 2, the Patriots were considering a stunning move to nab the Oklahoma quarterback.
"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," Mills said Tuesday on "The Business of Sports with Andrew Brandt." "They had 23, and they had 31, (they had) two seconds. We thought, 'That's going to be a heck of a move to get up that high to where they are,' and of course, he wasn't available. We didn't know if that was a reality or not."
Mayfield met with the Patriots a week before the draft and, according to The Athletic, it was Josh McDaniels who hinted to Mayfield's camp that they would be willing to trade up in order to get an interview with the Heisman Trophy winner, who kept declining the Patriots' requests because they held the No. 23 pick.
Giants GM Dave Gettleman, however, was dead set on taking Penn State running back Saquon Barkley with his pick, so much so that he said he did not even entertain trade offers.
"They went Mayfield; we were taking Saquon," he said. "It's that simple."
But what if the Browns had taken Barkley instead?
That's where things could have gotten interesting and the Giants could have traded out of the pick.
Mills said Mayfield had visited with the Giants, but their impressions were that they "never thought they were going to take a quarterback."
