New Baker Or Fluke Baker?
February 23rd, 2025
A lot of Bucs fans are wondering if 2024 rookies Jalen McMillan and Bucky Irving can improve on their stunning stats next season.
Joe is just as focused on another guy and one aspect of his game.
That’s Baker Mayfield.
Mayfield ran for 378 yards last season, more than double his previous career high. His escape skills and quality scrambling were key pieces of the Bucs’ offense. Mayfield also rushed for 24 first downs, another career high big a big margin.
And guess who led the NFL in fumbles last season? Mayfield tied for the league lead with 13, a career high by a mile.
So Joe’s wondering if Mayfield’s scrambling can and will continue at this high-octane, high-performance pace. And do the Bucs want Mayfield on the move?
Rookie offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard told Joe and other reporters in an off-podium chat at One Buc Palace that Mayfield can improve by cutting turnovers. (He tied for the 2024 league lead in interceptions.) Maybe that means taking fewer chances and throwing balls away more often.
If Mayfield goes back to his more typical 160 or so rushing yards per season, Joe would be just fine with that, though the Bucs will have to find ways to recapture the lost production.
February 23rd, 2025 at 10:09 pm
If you’re throwing the ball a ton and putting up points, I don’t care about turnovers that much.
Rushing however, Baker should cut back on the ‘power’ run stuff since he’s going to eventually get hurt, and on every run he looks like he’s going to fumble the ball. I like the effort, but unless it’s a 3rd down, just play it safe.
But if he wants to work on something this offseason – how about practicing handoffs a day on end arounds. Give me a 1000 a day.
February 23rd, 2025 at 10:11 pm
Baker rarely fumbled when he took off and ran, it was when he was in the pocket dodging and weaving from hungry defenders is where the most of his fumbles occurred
February 23rd, 2025 at 10:18 pm
I hate to see him running too much for sure. But if it is his progession as a QB, if it makes key third downs, extends drives, scores points, and wins games…then I’m cool with it. That being said I think he and Griz have the sense to know they would much rather it be in the hands of the other 5 guys on the offense who have the skills to do more than he can do with it.
February 23rd, 2025 at 10:21 pm
DRD, did you read the article? Mayfield was tied for the league lead in fumbles.
February 23rd, 2025 at 10:40 pm
Munch you wouldn’t be satisfied with Baker giving you a thousand pushups a day. Take a deep breath and let it go Rod. Washington was playing like one of the best 2 or 3 teams in the conference finishing the season and so were we. We’d probably have beaten them most nights but not that night. One more play by our offense or defense and we win that game. Overall as a team we didn’t deserve to win that game, we weren’t quite good enough. Give Washington some respect Rod-they made zero mistakes and never punted the ball!
February 23rd, 2025 at 11:02 pm
I just want to see Baker win Angry Runs one time, and then he can be a little more laid back.
February 23rd, 2025 at 11:07 pm
Mayfield is an exciting player and the Bucs offense is fun to watch largely because of his flamboyant style.
Coach Grizzard is right- if Bucs want to win more, especially in the playoffs, they need to cut down on the turnovers.
As for the lost production, if that even becomes a thing, 15-20 yards/game can easily be made up among the talented offensive roster, assuming they stay healthy.
We all know what is needed on Defense.
February 23rd, 2025 at 11:14 pm
So many of his runs came on critical downs or key moments in games. I’m good with it. How many of those fumbles were lost Joe?
February 23rd, 2025 at 11:22 pm
3 is the answer. I can live with that.
February 24th, 2025 at 12:23 am
Scrambling causes fumbles?
I think that the loss of Godwin and White being taken out of the game plan late in the year. He learned that he could call his own number if it was not there imediately in the passing game. Not sure what the deal is with the fumbles.
He still tends to hold the ball too long at times.
Go Bucs!
February 24th, 2025 at 12:58 am
Pro-Football-Reference shows Baker with 16 INTs & 13 fumbles (of which we only lost 5). So 21 Bucs’ drives were ended because Baker either threw an INT or fumbled the ball.
At the same time though, Baker picked up 24 first downs via his running. Haven’t analyzed how many of those were on 3rd or 4th down, but I’d say that he kept as many drives alive with his scrambling as he ended with his INTs & fumbles.
And somewhat interestingly, Baker actually ran FEWER TIMES in 2024 (60) than he did in 2023 (62). He was just a LOT more productive running in 2024 (378 yards, 6.3 YPC & 24 first downs) than he was in 2023 (163 yards, 2.6 YPC & 16 first downs). I would think that’d mean that he’s making better decisions on when/where to run.
February 24th, 2025 at 2:46 am
Defense Rules, I hate to fact check you but Mayfield registered 18 total turnovers last year. 16 interceptions and 2 lost fumbles. Those are the facts. And the fact is we need to protect the ball better.
February 24th, 2025 at 3:31 am
Kenton … Actually I love it when folks fact-check anything that I or others write. We all make mistakes, and that can influence our analyses and conclusions to be sure.
That said, I took those numbers from Pro-Football-Reference. If you plug in his name for his stats, then scroll down to ‘Defense & Fumbles’, it shows that he made 13 fumbles but that 8 of them were recovered by ‘the player or his team’. That leaves 5 that were recovered by the other team … his fumbles lost.
February 24th, 2025 at 4:31 am
“Most turnovers NFL QBs in 2024” Statmuse. DR it shows top 25 QB turnover breakdown. Plus I kept a running track during the season. Mayfield lost 2 fumbles.
February 24th, 2025 at 4:37 am
DR – According to NFL.com stats – Baker Fumbled 13 times in 2024 and only 2 of those fumbles were “lost” or recovered by the opponent. Baker recovered 8 of his own fumbles – so 3 were recovered by a Buccaneer other than Mayfield…..
16 INTs + 2 lost fumbles = 18 total turnovers attributed to Baker Mayfield in 2024
I would take that every year in exchange for 44 total TDs.
When BA first got here – he told Winston “You get 1 turnover per game”.
Jameis had 34 total TDs in 2019 but gave away 30 Ints and 5 lost fumbles in 16 games that year (average of more than 2 per game) and was promptly shown the door….
February 24th, 2025 at 5:07 am
The elephant in the room isn’t Baker’s scrambling, fumbling or even how many yards he ran for… it’s why he is scrambling? I would say 1/3 of his runs he simply saw an opening and took it, but most successful runs were none designed runs, and for me, as much as we saw pretty damn good run blocking, I can’t help but scrutinize our pass blocking looked soft down the stretch. It something this coaching staff really needs to take a look at to ensure that they aren’t 100% content on how the line performed.
Not sure where the breakdown was, since we lauded the play of our bookend tackles, was it Barton still adjusting to the pro level? Was it Mauch or Bredeson? Not much we can do about Mauch since he’s going into his 3rd year, but a lot of hype about paying Bredeson to keep our line intact. Just something worth monitor if we opt to see if Klein is ready to push for more time.
February 24th, 2025 at 5:56 am
Kenton & Pickgrin … Learn something new every day (hopefully that is). Pro-Football-Reference shows Baker with 13 Fumbles but 8 Fumble Recoveries. I assumed that’d result in 5 Lost. But on going through the 2024 Game Logs, 3 others were recovered by other Bucs, so those weren’t really lost. And yes, his actual number was 2 Lost.
That’s the most number of fumbles that Baker has had in any season (by quite a few), but the harm is minimal (just loss of yards/down) since we retained all but 2 of those fumbles.
February 24th, 2025 at 6:32 am
He needs to cut down the turnovers period. Let’s not forget it was a new offense again, and a rookie first time center. Mauch was starting only his second year at RG, like Wirfs was at LT. There were blocking busts that also lead to TOs that should lessen with more experience. This young offense is still a work in progress. I’m expecting less turnovers as this O continues to get more reps.
February 24th, 2025 at 7:05 am
By Mayfield having a 108.2 passer rating compared to Mahomes 94.2 I’m sure that made up for those interceptions. Not to mention his league leading 71.4% completion percentage wiping out those 2 fumbles he lost. Mayfield is fine, heck he put Bobby Wagner on his back and walked away fine.
February 24th, 2025 at 7:31 am
It’s stupid to keep talking about the fumble at the end of the Redskins game. It was not all on Mayfield and any 5th grader who has ever actually taken a handoff or made a handoff would tell you that.
It was off tempo, McMillan is also responsible for the play, and so is the Center. And it was wide open on the left. It failed. Duuuvalll called it.
But after that fiasco, the Offense tied the game. The Defense blew it.
February 24th, 2025 at 7:39 am
Carrying the ball “high & tight” seems to be an afterthought anymore. All ball carriers can improve in this area, especially Bucky. The care-free ball handling that lead to the fumble in the first Falcons game, had faaarrr-reaching ramifications. It seems like coaching reminders would be easy in this regard. High & tight!!
February 24th, 2025 at 10:34 am
His escapability and scrambling were key parts of the offense . He sustained critical drives when it was otherwise shut down and the pass rush was in his grill. His Houdini plays are some of the best I’ve seen from anyone. Go watch them.
He does need to cut down on the fumbles and picks. But given the offense’s overall performance, all eyes and the microscope should be focused on and magnifying the wretched pass defense.
February 24th, 2025 at 10:38 am
ESPN has Baker with 9 fumbles in 2024 and 1 lost fumble
I actually wish Baker made the decision to run more quickly than he does
Might’ve beaten ATL once if he is quicker with those choices
February 24th, 2025 at 10:40 am
Baker needs to target the turnovers at 10-12 total
Probably wouldn’t turn it over as much if he had a defense that was competent
Lot of pressure on an offense to score 30 every week when your d is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad at everything
February 24th, 2025 at 4:21 pm
Spot on, First Name. Hopefully your objective critique doesn’t invite another torrent of wordarrhea explaining the misunderstood defense and the subtle genius behind it.
February 24th, 2025 at 6:23 pm
How many of those fumbles were on 3rd or 4th down because that also stopped the drive, not just fumbles lost
February 24th, 2025 at 7:43 pm
Fluke cause it’s what he is. Lmao I can’t wait till next season when he leads the league in turnovers again and then watch most of you turn on him and start realizing why BROWNS and PANTHERS let him goooooooooooooooo
February 24th, 2025 at 10:16 pm
Big Jim here, I’ve been calling him “Baker the Faker” since he cut he teeth at OU, and dam, he’s faked his way the whole god dang way to today. Baker might even fake his way to a super bowl, a mvp, or hall of fame, regardless, Baker is the best dam Faker ever in the sport of football, and no one can say otherwise,