Crazy NFL trade idea would give Saints their franchise quarterback

The New Orleans Saints need a quarterback this offseason. Fletcher Mackel of WDSU-TV has a crazy trade idea that would get a franchise quarterback to the Big Easy but it might not be the franchise signal-caller Saints fans would be excited to see donning the black and gold.

Here was what Mackel tweeted on Monday:

The basis of the trade involves three teams and the Saints are in that group, of course along with the Vikings and Browns. Mackel goes into detail in the thread of the tweet, so before you start freaking out wondering why the Vikings would only add Taysom Hill, hold up and let me get into that.

As Mackel mentions, Minnesota would land Hill in this trade, offloading Kirk Cousins’ contract and taking a quarterback in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft to pair with Hill. Now, it’s worth noting that Hill might not even be able to play this year but that’s a story for another day.

The Browns would land Cousins and also a second-round pick from the Saints, who would get current Browns signal-caller Baker Mayfield.

Saints land Baker Mayfield in insane trade idea

The Browns adding Cousins does make sense, as Kevin Stefanski was his offensive coordinator before taking the Cleveland head coach job a few years ago. Reuniting Stefanski with a quarterback he had success with could definitely jumpstart the Browns, who are stuck in neutral right now.

For the Saints, they get Mayfield, who went No. 1 overall in 2018 but has not lived up to the hype. He got the Browns to the playoffs in the 2020 season and they won a playoff game but it’s clear that Cleveland has underperformed to this point and Mayfield is certainly to blame for some of the disappointment.

Mackel’s reasoning for adding Mayfield is that he wouldn’t be an unknown guy and could do well with Pete Carmichael as his offensive coordinator. This is assuming Carmichael sticks around (which he likely will if Allen gets the head coaching position).

Saints fans probably don’t want to see Mayfield as the next quarterback of the team and I understand why. This trade would be absolutely crazy, especially if the Vikings took on Hill and his weird contract despite the guy being injured for maybe the entire season. He wouldn’t be the answer there but with Sean Payton out of New Orleans, perhaps the organization would finally move on from the Swiss Army knife.

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This trade isn’t going to happen but adding Mayfield might not be entirely out of the question. How would you feel if that happened?