Report: Baker Mayfield to visit Cardinals on Wednesday
Apr 18, 2018, 7:25 AM | Updated: 7:31 am
(AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
(AP Photo/Darron Cummings)
Former Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield will visit the Arizona Cardinals on Wednesday, the last day teams can bring draft prospects to their facilities, reports ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
MMQB’s Robert Klemko first reported Mayfield would visit Arizona in March.
Mayfield, the 2018 Heisman winner, is one of the players Arizona is considering drafting No. 15 overall in the NFL draft, though he is expected to be picked well before the Cardinals pick.
Last season, Mayfield threw for 4,627 yards and completed more than 70 percent of his throws. He had 43 touchdowns with only six interceptions.
Arizona will be one stop of Mayfield’s tour, which will take him to Cleveland, Buffalo, both the Giants and Jets in New York, Miami and Denver, according to MMQB.
The Cardinals may need to trade up if they want to draft Mayfield. All six of the other teams he is visiting have a pick before Arizona.
Mayfield is considered one of the top quarterback prospects in the draft in a list that includes USC’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen and Wyoming’s Josh Allen.
If any fall to the middle of the first round, though, it could be Mayfield. Fox NFL’s Charles Davis said it’s not unprecedented, citing players including Aaron Rodgers and Brady Quinn on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station’s Bickley & Marotta.
“It’s a matter of who might be that one this year,” he said.
The most-likely culprits, in his opinion, are Mayfield and Allen. He also included Rosen, but to a lesser extent “in case everybody doesn’t like his personal interviews” or medical issues.
“Mayfield could be, height concerns,” Davis said.
And on Allen: “A big thrower, but is accuracy going to be an issue for him?”
This doesn’t necessarily reflect Davis’ beliefs of what will happen. In his mock draft 2.0, Davis predicted Rosen would go No. 2 to the Giants, Mayfield No. 3 to the Jets and Allen No. 12 to Buffalo.
He has the Cardinals taking offensive tackle Connor Williams from Texas.
If Arizona goes the quarterback route at No. 15, they could pick Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, who Davis thinks will be available in the middle of the first round.
The Fox analyst doesn’t think the poor Wonderlic score that got leaked should negatively impact perception of Jackson.
“There’s some guys who are wearing gold jackets that if you knew their Wonderlic score, you would’ve questioned why anyone would even put them on a roster,” Davis said.
