Wide receiver Javon Baker gave an exciting preview of himself when asked to give a scouting report on what the New England Patriots had gotten with a fourth-round pick in the NFL Draft on Saturday.

“Just come to the home stadium and bring y’all popcorn,” Baker said. “That’s all I can tell y’all. Bring your popcorn. I make people in wheelchairs stand up.”

A player that can do that ought to be drafted before the 110th pick, especially not as the 18th wide receiver selected. At least that’s what Baker thought.

When his name was called, Baker reacted on Instagram: “Took too (expletive) long.”

The draft slight left Baker plenty motivated.

“The mentality is just kill whoever’s on the other side of me,” Baker said. “Just really the Mamba mentality. That’s it.”

The Patriots selected Baker out of UCF. But before he played two seasons at Central Florida, Baker played two seasons at Alabama.

New England used the third pick in the draft on quarterback Drake Maye, and he almost played for the Crimson Tide, too. But he changed his mind after committing to Alabama and went to North Carolina instead.

Baker said he got to know Maye when the quarterback still was considering the Tide.

“People don’t know this,” Baker said, “but when Drake Maye was committed to Bama at first, we always used to practice and throw it around. Me and Drake Maye got, like, a connection going on. Drake Maye, in my opinion, is the best quarterback in this draft. We’re going to connect again. It’s going to be a good connection. …

“A competitive quarterback, and that’s what I like in a quarterback. And somebody that can push me, and I’ll push him.”

Baker termed New England as a “winning-mentality organization, just like how it was at Bama.” But while Alabama hasn’t won fewer than 10 games in a season since 2007 or finished with a losing record since 2006, the Patriot have had three losing seasons in the past four years.

But after drafting Maye, Washington wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk (an offseason-workout partner of Baker’s) and him, Baker said New England was going to get turned around.

“Us three alone just going to bring back the winning mentality that everybody like in Boston,” Baker said.

New England likes that it has “a couple of guys who can grow with Drake” for the next four years, said Matt Groh, the Patriots’ director of player personnel.

“This is a kid who went to Alabama,” Groh said. “They’ve got a pretty good knack of finding wide receivers out of high school. They don’t just offer anybody to come play that position there. Obviously, coach (Nick) Saban and his staff and everything that they’ve done, they know what they’re looking for.

“Didn’t work out for Javon at Alabama. Hasn’t worked out for a few guys at Alabama. You can come up with some pretty good names of players who started there. I won’t list the names off. You know who they are. I remember being down there at UCF a couple of years ago, saying, ‘Whoa, who’s this guy?’ So you could see the talent right away.”

Baker played at Alabama in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, when he had nine receptions for 116 yards and one touchdown. Baker’s TD was the first touchdown pass of current Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe’s career – a 24-yarder during Alabama’s 63-14 victory over Southern Miss on Sept. 25, 2021.

Playing for former Auburn coach Gus Malzahn at UCF, Baker had 108 receptions for 1,935 yards and 12 touchdowns in the past two seasons.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.