The Tampa Bay Bucs’ margin for error coming into the season was pretty high for a team that had low expectations and a quarterback the rest of the league passed on. They have a receiving corps that’s healthy, deep and full of playmakers to go with a defense that’s also healthy and rife with big-time talent. All Baker Mayfield had to do was facilitate and not actively sabotage the offense (that’s the running game’s job).
Well, he was more than that in Wild-Card Weekend’s finale, torching the Philadelphia Eagles’ secondary in a flak jacket that, from the right angle, looks like a fat suit. It’s the perfect aesthetic for a redemption story. (See: Frasier, Brendan in The Whale.) If you were a casting director looking to revive an actor at his low point, that was Mayfield last season.
It’s like that two-year span of Colin Farrell’s career when he did Phone Booth (the Browns), Daredevil (the Panthers) and S.W.A.T. (the Rams). Ideally, Mayfield can avoid the Miami Vice and Alexander pratfalls, but this is a pretty good start for the Baker Mayfield reality tour.
The infrastructure in Tampa wasn’t going away with Tom Brady, it just looked like it was cratering due to injuries last season, and an over-reliance on an old QB. The rushing attack actually came around in the final stretch of 2023 when the Bucs won five of six (now six of seven) to take the division and now a playoff game.
Second-year running back Rachaad White and the offensive line showed more consistency, tallying 503 yards, good for 70 per game, during this seven-game run. It doesn’t sound like much, yet in the 11 outings prior, White only accounted for 559 yards, or 50-yard per contest. That much-needed balance will be tested against a Lions team that allowed the second fewest rushing yards in the league this year.
If Detroit slows down White, it’ll fall to Mayfield — or maybe a couple of Jared Goff turnovers — in order for Tampa Bay to reach the NFC title game. The Lions’s pass defense is suspect on top of already being banged up and there’s a ton of potential for Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and other Bucs pass catchers to make plays. Obviously, don’t sleep on the Tampa defense, but things will be tougher than the Eagles in a full tailspin sans AJ Brown, and this piece is really about Mayfield.
He’s got enough swagger to win the starting spot, and if the roster has the requisite talent, keep it. Tampa, only a game over .500 in the regular season, has a peculiar confidence about them. Baker is Brock Prudy, but with a personality and a laundry list of character defects. (Tell me right now Mayfield couldn’t go 12-5 with Kyle Shanahan calling the plays, and I’ll tell you you’re a liar.)
If Al Davis was still alive, Mayfield would’ve been in Las Vegas two years ago. There aren’t too many contemporary sports figures that can readily be described as swashbuckling, but it applies in this case. Mayfield is basically Captain Jack Sparrow: There’s a thin line between pirate guile and drunken fool that he straddles in an always entertaining way.
For the uninitiated, in this analogy, the Eagles are Norrington, or maybe Gov. Weatherby Swan. If you want to sell me on Jason Kelce as Barbossa, I’ll allow it. Whatever pisses off Philly fans more.
Now, Baker Mayfield’s bloated cadaver sails into the Motor City for a chance to tear out opposing fans’ hearts and throats. There’s a sneaky underdog believability to this Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ team, and while a talented roster is the main reason for that, it starts with the quarterback.
