Baker Mayfield And His Weapons
July 23rd, 2023
Does he need help?
Can Baker Mayfield get over the hump and lead the Bucs to the playoffs? One NFL columnist is dubious and it’s not necessarily because of Mayfield.
Douglas Clawson of CBS is no Mayfield fan (outside of Tampa Bay and Mayfield’s immediate family and close friends, who is besides Rick Spielman, Chris Simms and Shaun King?). However, Clawson doesn’t believe the Bucs are doing Mayfield any favors.
Clawson loves Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. After that, Clawson types, what do the Bucs have on offense to help Mayfield?
Even if [Mayfield] does win the job, he faces an uphill battle as he’s been one of the league’s worst QBs in the last two years.
Tampa Bay has a below average offensive line and below average weapons at RB and TE. The Buccaneers’ strength is at WR with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, but both were on the decline last year. Mayfield also has more interceptions than touchdowns in his career targeting WR, and was never able to develop much chemistry with Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry in Cleveland.
One day people will come conclude that Odell Beckham is not Jerry Rice. The guy is talented, yes, and earlier in his career he was dangerous. But Mike Evans is so much better than Beckham it isn’t even funny.
Hell, Joe can make a strong case Chris Godwin is better than Beckham. Jarvis Landry? Please! His five Pro Bowl years are gone and he’s just a possession receiver bouncing around the league.
Joe doesn’t believe good receivers can make a quarterback. How good did Calvin Johnson make all of those rotten quarterbacks in Detroit before Matt Stafford showed up? Or Andre Johnson in Houston?
Good receivers can help out quarterbacks. There is a difference. And there is no doubt in Joe’s mind that Evans and Godwin are easily the best receivers Mayfield has ever played with.
So there is that.
Clawson is onto something that the Bucs probably likey need significant production from someone other than Evans and Godwin.
That’s where Dave Canales comes in. Joe is confident the new Bucs offensive coordinator was hired, in part, to develop at least an average run game.
A running game is a quarterback’s best friend. And while the Bucs’ running backs currently have a lot to prove, it seems the Bucs trust that Canales will be able to get more out of them than SpongeBob did.
July 23rd, 2023 at 8:11 am
Now that is a more worrying stat than any I have heard about Maybefield and is not something a coach can usually do anything about.
Hmm …damn!
Go Bucs!
July 23rd, 2023 at 8:22 am
I fear that if ME and CG are covered up Mayfield won’t have a good third or fourth option. Gage won’t even make it past training camp. Our TEs are pretty green and are not very good at this point. Our RBs can’t catch and get many YAC. Hope Mayfield is ready to scramble a lot. Lol.
Speaking of Canales and what Bowles is asking him to do, I’m afraid this running game strategy is going to collapse with this OLine in place. If so then there is no way this team can score thirty points per game. 18 points will not do it . It’s more the Bucs will end up with a horizontal game that can’t keep up with other teams in the fourth quarter. Think the whole offensive strategy is a dumpster fire in this day and age.
July 23rd, 2023 at 8:34 am
Evans and Godwin in decline? They both had a thousand yards last year
July 23rd, 2023 at 8:36 am
We will definetly need a young receiver to step up. We will see if Palmer is the real deal, or fools gold like Kenny Bell was. Thompkins could be an option as well, as it looks like he’s improved. It will be a miracle if Gage plays the whole season. If Otton and/or Kieft show significant improvement, we might be on to something.
July 23rd, 2023 at 8:40 am
Douglas Clawson didn’t watch any games of the Bucs last year. I don’t know how he can say both ME13 and CG are on the decline. ME13 was open all season down the field but Brady dumped the ball off without any time or mobility to extend plays out of the pocket.
CG had a great comeback year from a torn ACL… doesn’t make sense. I think both go over 1k again.
July 23rd, 2023 at 8:43 am
The Oline is a complete unknown…..they could be awful, they could be spectacular.
I think our RBs White & Vaughn are better than most think…..Canales may be the key here.
Don’t discount Gage…& Palmer may be a winner.
I think the addition of Durham to the TE Corps is a good thing
Our W-L record will rest on the Defense.
July 23rd, 2023 at 9:00 am
Gage had no injury history prior to coming here, odds say he’ll be ok
July 23rd, 2023 at 9:04 am
Unfortunately this will be the first year Mike Evans does not get 1,000 receiving yards thanks to Baker Mayfield’s sorry as
July 23rd, 2023 at 9:11 am
You can shout that from the mountain top Jack Clark but it doesn’t make it so.
Noticed that was a copy and paste.
July 23rd, 2023 at 9:31 am
When Beckham and Landry played with Mayfield both were in their prime.
July 23rd, 2023 at 9:34 am
Also, in 2019 both these receivers had 1000 yards. Those were the ONLY 1000 yard receivers mayfield has ever had. Six TOUCHDOWNS is the most he’s ever thrown to one receiver and he has done that a total of one time.
July 23rd, 2023 at 9:38 am
Also, in 2019, Beckham and Landrys thousand yard seasons is the only time in his career that Mayfield has thrown 1000 yards to a single receiver. Also, the most touchdowns he has thrown to one receiver is six. And he has done that a total of one time.
July 23rd, 2023 at 9:53 am
We can all agree that Evans and Godwin are the best NFL WR duo that has ever been paired up in league history. We are lucky to watch them every Sunday.
July 23rd, 2023 at 9:58 am
1000 yards receiving isn’t a big deal anymore. With 17 games it’s 58 yards per game. 1000 is an antiquated stat.
Godwin averaged 65 and Evans averaged 76 per game last season. That’s good not great.
1500 should be the new measuring stick for greatness @ 88 ypg.
July 23rd, 2023 at 10:05 am
The most significant heavy decline is journalism in America
July 23rd, 2023 at 10:53 am
R0n@Tampa Says:
July 23rd, 2023 at 9:53 am
We can all agree that Evans and Godwin are the best NFL WR duo that has ever been paired up in league history.
In league history??? Not even close, better NFL WR duos:
1. Randy Moss and Cris Carter
2. Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt
3. Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne
July 23rd, 2023 at 11:12 am
This guy lost me at when ME13 n CG14 declined last year and Otton last year had a good season for a rookie. He’s more likely to improve than decline at least if last season is any indication. He got better has the season went on and he earned TB12 trust which isn’t an easy task. Baker should have plenty of options. ME13 will draw heavy coverage CG is finally healthy and will get open but if he is covered then that’s going to leave gage if healthy or 3rd receiver and TE with more single coverage and let’s not forget RW can ketch out of the backfield. Baker is mobile enough to evade rusher so the only question how will his decision making will be ?
July 23rd, 2023 at 11:17 am
Mike Evans is used to catching from scrubs, Jack. It’s the evidence that proves just how good he really is. If Evans doesn’t get another 1000 yards this year, it will be because of the focus in the run game that didn’t exist last year.
July 23rd, 2023 at 12:12 pm
This guy makes some valid points. Imo. The oline needs to vastly improve over last season. The TEs and RBs need to produce more consistently. On the other side of the ball, the d-line needs to stop the run and get more sacks. The d needs more turnovers, too. If most of this happens, the season will go well. If not, the season will go bad. It’s up to the coaches to make this team more effective. This did not happen last season.
July 23rd, 2023 at 2:35 pm
Baker only has the presumption of the job. Everyone seems to forget Trask is even in the room, but a few years ago the Gators were wringing their hands about life after him.
The O-line is also just unproven, so they cannot be lumped in the worst category because they have good depth there and a few tweaks is all it takes to go from mediocre to great.
July 23rd, 2023 at 2:47 pm
5-12
July 23rd, 2023 at 4:53 pm
Starting next week there’ll be a lot less blathering and a lot more actual love football to talk about.
BTW, Joe…Evans made Johnny Football look pretty good. Maybe he can make Traskfield look good too. We will have three 6’5″ or taller receivers/TEs to throw to. I think Durham is almost 6’6″ and has an incredible wingspan.
July 23rd, 2023 at 4:59 pm
Evans is in a different tier than the overrated OBJ (or Godwin for that matter), however the point being made is that they brought in OBJ for Mayfield, and the guy wouldn’t use him, didn’t even throw the ball to him. I remember watching all those videos of OBJ running wide open down the field and Baker, without a ton of pressure, dumping it off to a RB. It wasn’t an isolated incident, it was literally week after week, entire Twitter accounts dedicated to showing WRs running wide open and Baker just dumping the ball off – and again, not under huge pressure, he was either not looking downfield, or just worried about his completion percentage.
Evans is still an elite WR, and Godwin is just a notch below that, both are top 10 WRs – and everyone would know that if Winston had been released by the Saints and came home and put up 5500 yards. Instead we’ll get Mayfield putting up 2200 yards through 11 games before he gets benched, and everyone saying Evans and Godwin are washed up.
July 23rd, 2023 at 5:10 pm
More INTs than TDs throwing to WRs seems par for the course for a guy who’s career has been marked by difficulty seeing down field.
July 23rd, 2023 at 7:40 pm
Captain check downs best yardage total was less than TB12 worst season. Ever
This is not going to end well for Baker
6 wins and Kyle gets 4 of them
July 23rd, 2023 at 10:19 pm
I watched every Browns game during Mayfield’s tenure there and the best wide receiver he had there by far was Jarvis Landry, who knew how to run routes and adjusted to where the ball was thrown. He and Mayfield had great chemistry. Beckham was terrible, unable to create separation from CBs and not big enough to win on jump balls. The fact is that he never had a dominant, large WR at any time. Maybe now he will have that, with Evans and Godwin.
The stats being used against Mayfield are unfair as he had a super conservative offensive coaches in both CLE and CAR who wanted to ram the ball into the end zone on the ground when it would have much easier to use the RBs as decoys and let Mayfield pass for TDs.
I’m cautiously optimistic about this year for TB.
July 23rd, 2023 at 11:30 pm
PLawson – I also watched every game CLE played – was a CLE fan for 30 years before they hired the pervert. (Isn’t it interesting that they CUT Perrion Winfrey for a much less eggregious violation, but spend 230M on the other guy).
Baker had two good seasons with the Browns. And OBJ was literally NEVER where he was supposed to be – he free-lances everything. Some QBs can deal with that, but BM never stood a chance – what people don’t realize is that he was taking more QB hits and sacks than almost anyone in the league. Landry was a beast, and BM’s go-to guy. But for as good as CLE’s OLine was supposed to be – they only played together as a unit for 2 games – against the Jets they started a center and 4 guards, and still almost won.
It will be interesting to see how Mayfield performs this year. IF they go to a ‘dink and dunk’ offense, with misdirection and a semblance of a running game, he can hit the big one and have a decent season. If the line sucks and they try to play deep ball, well, game over.
July 24th, 2023 at 12:07 am
The Bucs have good enough players at the skill positions to be competitive in their own division if the O line can block way better than last season. Either qb can hit the short to medium passes. And also the backs are good enough if the line can block for them. So in my humble opinion the Bucs will only be as good as their O line. With all the O line injuries last season the Bucs struggled to run or pass. If the Bucs can establish a decent run game they can be competitive with either Baker or Trask. If the O line sucks again it won’t matter who the qb is. We saw what it did to Brady last year!