Pewter Plank's five Baker alternatives: Sam Darnold, Michael Penix, Russell Wilson, Gardner Minshew, Justin Fields.
Darnold - OMG fans will be running for the hills including me. I'm not saying I'd abandon the Bucs, but I think we'd all be asking "What the hell, Licht?". .
Penix - He's not really a running QB, so what is the attraction to starting him in year 1 if he doesn't have superior athleticism? He's got a good arm, but it takes time to get up to speed in the NFL. Sure he will probably be a good QB, but he needs to sit for a year.
Wilson - It looks like he's going to the Steelers. Not enthusiastic about his abilities at this stage of his career.
Minshew - He could be a good stopgap to come in and compete with Trask. If they go that route they better put some serious money into a couple other big name players.
That brings us to Fields who has athleticism, so if you can utilize that and really shore up the O-line and add another good RB you could have something to work with. I agree that maybe we could get him for a 3rd round pick rather than 2nd. I don't think 4th will do it. They don't have to trade him right away because his cap hit isn't that bad.
The idea with any of these options is to be able to use that cap space to get some really good players at other positions such as linebacker and G/C.
Mike Evans, in a recent interview with Time2Football, made it known as one of the reasons to resign "i wanted to make sure we had Baker back" followed up with "I've been here 10 years, i don't see myself going anywhere else so i signed even before knowing what the outcome of his situation would be"
I'm glad to agree, no need for plan B.