The Cleveland Browns sprung a slight surprise when they selected Baker Mayfield with the first pick in 2018 NFL draft, but there could have been an even bigger shock on the day involving the Oklahoma QB. According the Mayfield's agent, Jack Mills, one team in particular had expressed interest in trading up for the Heisman trophy winner if he was available at number two; the New England Patriots.Speaking on "The Business of Sports with Andrew Brandt" podcast, Mills revealed that the Patriots told him in that scenario they would strongly considering moving up ahead of the Jets to get Mayfield.

"We had another team, which is going to surprise you. Another team had said, 'You may get a big surprise on draft day, at No. 2, if he's available.' And it was the Patriots," Mills told Brandt. "They had (No.) 23 and they had (No.) 31 and they had two seconds. We thought, 'That's gonna be a heck of a move, to get up that high from where they are.' And, of course, he wasn't available, so we never knew if that was a reality or not."

NFL.com insider Ian Rapoport reported that New England certainly did their homework on the number one pick. "They did send Josh McDaniels to Austin just to go talk to Baker Mayfield," Rapoport told NFL Network. "And this is kind of what the Patriots do: Make sure they're ready for all situations. What if he fell to five, six or seven, would they make a move? They had two first-round picks, they were ready to come up."

The Jets had strong a strong interest too, and indicated that they would take Mayfield with the third overall pick in the build up to the draft,"When he visited the Jets, they pretty much said you're our guy if you're there," Mills said.

The sticking point for the Patriots, had the Browns gone in another direction with the first pick, wouldve been getting the giants to part way with the number two pick.

GM Dave Gettleman was reportedly dead set on picking Saquon Barkley, and it may have taken an enormously one-sided trade involving a large haul of picks and players to get him to move out of that position.

Clearly that's not the sort of deal that Bill Belichick engages in, and thus according to the NFL Network's Mike Garafolo the trade was never 'really close to happening'.

The Patriots had been thought to be looking for Tom Brady's eventual successor this year and though the potential blockbuster trade for Mayfield never materialised they did add a young qb to their roster, selecting LSU's Danny Etling in the seventh round.