Want a good reminder of just how good the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have it as we head into the team's 50th season? Look no further than just how absurd even a seemingly decent trade idea involving Baker Mayfield is once you crack it open.
In a piece trying to find NBA-style trades in the NFL world, CBS Sports tossed out the idea of Tampa Bay trading Baker Mayfield to the Jaguars in exchange for Trevor Lawrence. A central crux of the trade revolves around Liam Coen skipping the rejuvenation phase with Lawrence and simply plugging Baker into the mix, someone with whom he worked so well last year that it landed him a head coaching job.
To be fair, this piece is less of a sensationalist hot take and more of a thought exercise; however, it still has a major flaw that is being overlooked.
Buccaneers trading Baker Mayfield would be a total nightmare scenario
Here's some of the reasoning behind the trade idea:
"Lawrence is still five years younger ... This swap would be all about the upside for Bucs general manager Jason Licht, who might see the chance to acquire a former No. 1 overall pick as a chance to take the Bucs from feisty to championship-caliber down the road., who's plenty familiar with Florida, is already under contract, too."
Truthfully, it's not a bad idea on paper.
The idea of the Bucs acquiring a former No. 1 overall pick and betting on him fully tapping into that potential sounds fantastic -- almost familiar. That's because they already have that exact strategy in place, and it's working perfectly fine.
Every bit of logic that works in favor of Coen reuniting with Baker is why the Bucs would be foolish to trade him. Tampa Bay's championship window is open right now, and Mayfield is not the reason the team hasn't squeezed through it yet. He turned in a career-year last season, was criminally left out of the MVP conversation, and outplayed perhaps the greatest quarterback of this current era.
If anything, trading Baker away would be a reset and potentially throw things entirely out of whack. Josh Grizzard is taking over as a first-time offensive coordinator and Baker is a load-bearing piece of the team's strategy for not missing any beats after last season's success.
Above all else, the way trading Baker away would damage locker room chemistry makes the trade almost blasphemous to even think about. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin didn't come back to Tampa Bay because they like the local food scene, they returned because they believe in what the Bucs have build and trust Baker to captain the ship.
Pulling the rug out on them, as well as guys like Tristan Wirfs and Lavonte David, is uncharacteristically chaotic and shortsighted, even if the sales pitch with adding Lawrence is long-term gain.
That's a major testament to not only how much Baker means to the Bucs but how well-constructed the team is. There's still work that needs to be done, but Tampa Bay is a lot closer to figuring things out with Baker than they are if he were to be replaced.
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