The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are one of the surprise teams in the NFL this season heading into their Week 6 NFC showdown with the Detroit Lions. A big reason for the team’s resurgence is quarterback Baker Mayfield. The signal-caller is having an excellent campaign after a few down seasons, and Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht explained exactly why the team loves him.
“He has an eternal chip on his shoulder,” Licht told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler for a long piece on Mayfield’s resurgence. “Now he wants to resurrect his career. Everybody was counting him out and saying he sucks.”
Having people tell Mayfield he sucks and playing for two teams (Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Rams) in 2022 was a long way from where the former Oklahoma Sooners QB was on April 26, 2018.
Baker Mayfield's long NFL journey to the Buccaneers
In April 2018, Mayfield was just a few months removed from winning the Heisman Trophy, and it was the night the Cleveland Browns made him the No. 1 overall pick in that year’s NFL draft.
Baker Mayfield had his moments in Cleveland. He led the team 10 an 11-5 record and a playoff win in 2020, but that was the high point. Mayfield went 6-7 and 6-10 as a starter before that season and 6-8 after it. To make matters worse, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, quarterbacks who went six and 31 picks after Mayfield, respectively, quickly ascended to become two of the top QBs in the league.
The Browns eventually traded Mayfield to the Panthers after the team signed Deshaun Watson and the Panthers released him, clearing the way for the QB to sign with the Rams. Both were bad teams, and Mayfield again showed flashes but didn’t excel.
Heading into the Buccaneers Week 6 matchup with the Lions — and another former No. 1 overall pick castoff and reinvented in Jared Goff — Mayfield seems to have found a team that wants him, some talent around him, and now he’s showing Jason Licht and the Bucs why the Browns loved him so much five years ago.
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