The Difference From 2022 To 2023 For Baker Mayfield? Bucs Let Him Be Him
February 14th, 2024
Being his best self.
It’s not uncommon, especially 10 years ago, for NFL coaches to try to strip the personality from a player to make him a quiet, cookie-cutter guy.
Bill Belicheat is notorious for this. Better to be a programmed robot than to have a personality. It might be — gasp! — a distraction!
In speaking last week at the Super Bowl Media Center at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, pending free agent quarterback Baker Mayfield told Chris Broussard of “First Things First,” seen weekdays on FS1, that Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht and Bucs coach Todd Bowles told Mayfield to just be himself. No need to be someone or something he isn’t.
Mayfield believes that made all the difference in the world from how his career sunk to rock bottom with the Stinking Panthers.
“Knowing Coach Bowles from the pre-draft interviews when he was with the Jets,” Mayfield said of why he blossomed in Tampa Bay. “Knowing what type of guy he was. Him and Jason Licht just told me to be myself. And be the best version of that.
“And that is an empowering feeling for a guy who has been asked to contain who he is as a person and wears his heart on his sleeves a lot. It was an empowering thing they allowed me to do.”
Not only did Mayfield feel suffocated in Carolina, apparently, but he suggested there was a lot of dissension in the background with the Stinking Panthers that fractured a lot of things, including Pearl Harboring players.
“I mean, it starts at the top down,” Mayfield began to explain how the Bucs are a much better organization and managed to help players win. “How they they run the organization. Everybody being on the same page. It’s just, how do you win games?
“So when there are a lot of voices behind the scenes, you are making a lot of distractions for your players. You are not putting them into a good position to have success and play free. For me, getting to Tampa, it was refreshing.”
It almost sounds like people in Carolina could sense that then-coach Matt Rhule was going to be run and people in the building, if not assistant coaches, were out to cover their own arses in order to stay employed.
Those sound like trainwreck working conditions.
Pre-free agency QB rankings šÆ
āļø @QBKlasshttps://t.co/XhgISG2Lhg pic.twitter.com/k0dWBRHgI2
— The 33rd Team (@The33rdTeamFB) February 13, 2024
February 14th, 2024 at 4:43 am
Pre-free agency QB rankings could change drastically. I do think the locker room at Carolina was toxic with coaching changes pending. A train wreck waiting to happen, yes. But not just the coaches, their owner has many issues too. And he is still there.
Baker found a good fit with the Bucs.
February 14th, 2024 at 5:53 am
Take us to the Super Bowl or shut your mouth. Iām tired of the media hype train. Itās nonsense. Give this guy the franchise tag until he wins. The team was a smidge above mediocre. Thatās it.
February 14th, 2024 at 5:55 am
Looking at the whole list on X and I would take Mayfield over most of the 9 guys that are in front of him and put him at 12 after Goff who should be a bit higher. Even Love is debatable, Baker has done more in the league. They are listing Murray, Smith and Richardson who has done nothing over Mayfield what a joke.
February 14th, 2024 at 6:27 am
Watson at 27! Hahaha love it!
February 14th, 2024 at 7:00 am
I think Baker needs to be moved up about 4 spots. I hope his contract reflects that and the Bucs dont overpay
February 14th, 2024 at 7:04 am
Mayfield … ‘Itās just, how do you win games?’
And there-in lies the bottom line. It’s humorous how everyone applauds when Baker says in effect ‘The Bucs let me be me’, but those same folks get onto Todd Bowles constantly for being ‘unemotional’ on the sidelines. That’s the very same Todd Bowles who ‘Let Baker be Baker’. And the very same Todd Bowles who molded a bunch of youngsters into the #7 scoring defense in the NFL. Maybe folks should just ‘Let Todd be Todd’ too.
February 14th, 2024 at 7:28 am
seeing that list actually makes me feel a little better about bake.
but we need a big insurance policy
at this point I do not see them viewing trask as even an option…so get someone else.
February 14th, 2024 at 7:39 am
We are so fortunate that he fell into our lap and we have the QB riddle solved for the next few years. Anyone that watched the Bucs this last year and saw how Baker played if they donāt think he played well they donāt know football. Theyāre just haters. Now we need pass, rush, pass rush, pass rush!
February 14th, 2024 at 8:09 am
“The team was a smidge above mediocre. Thatās it.”
Can’t really disagree with that except for “smidge”. Finishing in the final 8 is actually “above average” by definition! I take the point however. But for a little perspective a question.
Did the Bucs overachieve or underachieve? Did they flash any real potential as in did the new guys on let’s face it a rebuilding team show promise?
Many here are not that enamored with the “team” concept and believe only “elite” whatever that means, QB’s can lead a team to the SB. More on that next.
February 14th, 2024 at 8:37 am
OK the QB debate! There’s scoreboard and there is OPINION! It’s now the off season and so I get that OPINION will rule until next fall.
But for the sake of some objectivity let’s go to the scoreboard. In 2023 Baker was statistically a top ten QB, ranked 9th in the league. Just the facts as Sergeant Joe Friday used to say on “Dragnet”
Now for opinions…these guys have Baker ranked 19th. We know about opinions including mine…they’re like arseholes right? So for 2023 Baker was FACTUALLY the 9th most productive QB in the league, on a rebuilding team picked to finish last in their weak division.
AGAIN though the question is not what happened in the past but planning for the future along with the Cap considerations involved. Do the Bucs have a QB who can take them to the SB. Again IMHO the verdict is still out but there is certainly promise!
The 2002 SB won by the Bucs featured Gannon and Brad. Gannon #1 statistically with Brad far down the list at 17th. Yep he had Thunder and Lightning and a generational Defense. Can we not imagine that happening again? In fact can we not even imagine not needing an historic defense just a quality D. Baker finished in the top ten on a rebuilding team with a rookie OC.
Since we’re now in the opinion part of the year let’s hear your opinions on the 2002 NFL QB’s. How do we believe they were ranked prior to the 2002 season.
Does anybody believe Gannon was the most respected QB in the league…or Brad for that matter.
Again OPINION…let me suggest at least
The OBVIOUS…Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Brett Favre!!! Neither Brad nor Gannon were even remotely in the same category as these three.
Now toss in a young Drew Brees, still at S.D. so that would be hindsight on my part…Brad and Rich may have been viewed better at that time..again as viewed by “expert” opinions.
Then come the rest of the “challengers”…not to be great but at least as good as Brad and Gannon. Drew Bledsoe…with Buffalo after being replaced by Brady in NE
Duante Culpepper, and the other also rans…perhaps a bit behind Brad and Gannon but certainly close..Jeff Garcia, Kerry Collins, Brian Griese…middle of the pack guys opinion wise.
So opinion wise neither Brad nor Gannon broke the top 5 and were probably close to somewhere in the top 12-15. YMMV
Statistically Gannon was #1 Brad was #17!!! And who won the game?
My point is simple. I can’t comprehend why so many here lack even the imagination to consider Baker MIGHT be able to duplicate that success.
He’ll need the same formula as the 2002 team. Continue to improve the defense…and find another back…preferably a POWER back to complement White in the running game. Not only is the sky not falling…there is reason for #teamoptimism for those with just a “smidge” of imagination!!!
February 14th, 2024 at 9:28 am
Who in their right mind would put Anthony Richardson ahead of Baker Mayfield when ranking 2024 QBs???? Same goes for Geno Smith….
February 14th, 2024 at 9:33 am
These power rankings are simply someoneās opinion. Thatās it. A quick look will show you that 18 of these QBās never brought their team to the Super Bowl. My āfavoriteā is Lamar Jackson. Mr. MVP. The $52M Dollar Man! The guy who has great talent around him, yet never really shows that MVP talent when the playoffs come around.
Give Baker a better O-lone and a running game and the Bucs are a very scary team.
February 14th, 2024 at 9:50 am
I’m with WyomingJoe, if we improve the OL and RB1, we’ll have an average run game, instead of a terrible one. Play action will actually influence defenders and our QB will have more time to throw to more open receivers… Baker and the Bucs are continuously under-regarded by the national media.
February 14th, 2024 at 10:16 am
First – imagine Tom Brady playing on the 2018 Browns. Go ahead, imagine it. A train wreck of the first order. Baker may actually have gotten more out of that team than Brady, because he was able to escape the rush and the pocket, and make plays. I don’t think Brady can do that.
Point is, any QB’s ranking is HIGHLY dependent on the organization and the teams he plays on. Want proof? Ask all the great QBs who is maybe the best of all time… a LOT of them will answer ‘DAN MARINO’… and they won’t be wrong. They will say Brady has more rings, but I just saw an interview with Montana (another one with a claim to that title) and a bunch of others – all pointing out that Marino was as good as any of them. But his teams were never such that they got to the Super Bowl and won.
A ‘franchise QB’ is as mythical as a unicorn… they don’t exist, or they are ALL ‘franchise QB’s’… products of the franchise they play for.
Add a good interior O lineman, a power running back, and a good edge rusher, and keep your free agents – The Bucs can compete with anyone in the league.
February 14th, 2024 at 10:36 am
Man what a change in the times when our organization is being referred to as such a well run place with a great culture.
Props to Jason Licht man for weathering a bunch of storms to get to this point.
We are the only NFC team in the playoffs the last 4 years straight. I gotta relish in this while I can lol. Let’s make it 5 tho. No reason to not think this division isn’t ours next year if we bring back Shake n Bake.
February 14th, 2024 at 11:35 am
Lamar Jackson is the most overrated quarterback in the NFL and Baker Mayfield is underrated. I do believe that our Oline isnāt as bad as people say. The one true problem that we have is Center, Hainsey is constantly getting pushed around and knocked back. Mauch is going to be much better and stronger this season. R.White has improved but we still need a back that has good vision and can find holeās when plays break down. Im hopeful JL will address Center and RB in the draft.
February 14th, 2024 at 3:12 pm
Lamar Jackson at no. 2šš¤£š he is a running back who throws the ball sometimes. He was 15th in passing yards this year. Most overrated player in history. Should not have been even considered for MVP. He does not know how to play the position. Just bails out and runs every time he gets pressured. No ability to read defenses and make adjustments at the line of scrimmage. Only averages 185 yards per game for his entire 6 year career. He is a running back first and quarterback second.
February 14th, 2024 at 10:05 pm
Any one seen Goff