5 NFL teams that should draft Baker Mayfield in 2018

Drew Brees will seriously try to play until he’s 50. Tom Brady may joke about playing into his mid-40s, but Brees is the one quarterback of this generation that will live on forever like Warren Moon or Steve DeBerg.

So the Saints are in the rare position where they have a star quarterback in his late 30s who hasn’t shown rapid signs of decay as a passer. The truth is that Father Time will eventually catch up to Brees in the Big Easy. Had New Orleans been a terrible team like many expected them to be in 2016, the Saints front office probably would have used a first-round pick on a future franchise quarterback.

Though the Saints could still plan to do that, they may wait a few more years before looking for Brees’ heir apparent. What they could do in the meantime is draft somebody like Mayfield in the latter rounds of 2018 to see what he’s got as a developmental project.

Size and mobility don’t matter in New Orleans, as Brees is barely six-feet tall and has never had wheels by any means. Playing in a dome and in a southern market has not only extended Brees’ career but has made him a future first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer.

Mayfield will obviously have to get more comfortable in a pro-style offense, but New Orleans is a place he could find work as a starter in his mid-20s. If Mayfield was two inches and had a tad more touch, he’d be a more productive player than Jared Goff. While he’s not going to beat out Brees, just competing with him in practice and sitting next to him in the Saints quarterback room could be exactly what a fringe pro prospect like Mayfield needs to succeed.