NFL team hires private investigator to follow Baker Mayfield
Baker Mayfield is one of the most intriguing prospects in April’s NFL draft.
Mayfield put up eye-poping numbers at Oklahoma, throwing for 12,292 yards and 119 touchdowns with only 21 interceptions. Even coming in a spread offense against Big 12 defenses, those totals are ridiculous.
Last year, he led the Sooners to the College Football Playoff semifinals and won the Heisman Trophy by a landslide.
His accuracy, toughness, clutch play and competitive fire have some NFL scouts drooling.
The main knocks on Mayfield are his height (at 6 feet 1, he’s short for an NFL quarterback), his reliance on the spread offense — and his maturity.
He was arrested on public intoxication, disorderly conduct and fleeing/resisting charges last year, and his antics in games against Ohio State (planting the OU flag in the Buckeyes logo) and Kansas (grabbing his crotch and yelling “F— you” to the Jayhawks sideline) drew widespread criticism.
The NFL.com scouting report on Mayfield says he “has to prove he can reign in and control on-field edge and cockiness.”
Some have derisively called him the second coming of Johnny Manziel, whose NFL career was torpedoed by immaturity and off-the-field issues.
A new report says one team has gone to great lengths to avoid making the same mistake the Browns made when they drafted “Johnny Football” in the first round in 2014.
Sports Illustrated reported Thursday that an NFL team hired a private investigator to follow Mayfield around Norman, Oklahoma.
In the latest installment of SI’s draft series on the Oklahoma quarterback, Robert Klemko wrote that during the NFL combine earlier this month, “Mayfield received an alert from a trusted source that he had a tail in Norman. A private investigator, he was told, was tracking his movements on behalf of a team.”
SI said it wasn’t able to verify the identity of the team.
While some might be surprised or horrified that an NFL franchise would spy on a potential draft choice, Klemko said that “it should come as no surprise that any NFL franchise considering a (minimum) four-year commitment and tens of millions of dollars to a 22-year-old might like to know how he spends nights near his old stomping grounds.”
Mayfield might be the most compelling and divisive quarterback in a deep draft class.
Other top prospects include Sam Darnold of USC, Josh Rosen of UCLA, Lamar Jackson of Louisville and Josh Allen of Wyoming.
All have a good shot at going in the first round, although none is seen as a guaranteed star.
Now we know one quarterback-needy NFL team has a little bit of extra information to use when it’s on the clock next month.
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