The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have finally found their footing post-Tom Brady. More importantly, Baker Mayfield is finally starting to live up to his first-overall pick expectations. It took some faith from Todd Bowles and a lot of help from Dave Canales but it paid off. Now, the quarterback is getting a lot of love after his Comeback Player of the Year bid.
The idea that a signal caller would experience a dip in performance after their college career is fairly normal. Not everyone can acclimate immediately and get used to the physicality and chess matches in the league, even Bryce Young is undergoing that right now. However, Baker Mayfield posits that all these other great athletes just need one thing, via Jenna Laine of ESPN.
“It's all about opportunities. And so for me, this is an unbelievable opportunity to come to a place that's really stable. It was going to give me the best opportunity,” the Buccaneers quarterback said.
Coach Todd Bowles and the Buccaneers hope to build around their recent postseason success. With this, they gave Mayfield a big deal worth $115 million with $50 million of it being guaranteed. However, the Buccaneers star noted that he would not be here without the team's staff and his resilient mindset.
“I keep mentioning being the best person myself, and that means a lot. So, everybody, it's a tricky business. There are injuries, there are a lot of things that can happen to you in your career, self-inflicted ones too. I was going to hang my head high and we did that, we stuck together and so that was a big reason why I had fun playing football and that's a huge factor in me playing better,” he declared.
Mayfield shines with the Buccaneers
The former Heisman trophy was racking up career-high numbers all across the board. He threw for 4,044 passing yards with a 94.6 rating. His endzone finishing drastically went up after he finished the season with 28 touchdowns. Despite Dave Canales' departure, a big improvement the Buccaneers' quarterback could work on is his accuracy. He got picked off 10 times in 2023.
The Buccaneers are going to hope they stay healthy and remain competitive through February of 2025. Will he become the next quarterback to lead the team to the Super Bowl after Tom Brady?
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