Baker Mayfield fell back for a moment before stopping the ball and darting forward.
He weaved right and left, withstanding the Detroit Lions’ tackles just long enough to fall into the end zone.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took a 20-16 lead that they would not relinquish with 34 seconds to play, avenging their divisional round playoff loss eight months earlier as they improved to 2-0.
The series of events that led to Tampa Bay advancing in the playoffs last season and outlasting a good Lions team early this season was unexpected.
First, there was Mayfield’s success on the 11-yard quarterback draw. Buccaneers quarterbacks coach Thad Lewis grilled Mayfield about the pro who he said had a leaner, more athletic frame than last year.
“I said, ‘Big Bake couldn’t have scored on that last year,’” Lewis told Yahoo Sports. “But Slim Bake could.”
Then there was the passing play that would have required enough respect from the Lions defense to tie the game.
The Lions prepared for Mayfield fresh off a season opener in which he had thrown for 289 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions.
Even the Buccaneers, who take on the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday Night Football, didn’t see this coming 13 months ago, when Mayfield late in 2023 training camp became the league’s last starter still in a quarterback battle as the season came closer.
The career revival of the 2018 first overall draft pick has teams across the league fascinated as they try to make sense of the latest data from a famously inaccurate science. Teams spend many hours scouting top players. Their analyzes of quarterbacks are perhaps the most difficult, as they try to project not only physical attributes, but also the processing and decision-making that affects quarterbacks more than any other position.
When the top draft turns off the flame, teams are left reeling from the missed dart. When those same players have success elsewhere, a whole new level of questioning arises.
As quarterbacks like Mayfield find stability in their later careers, Yahoo Sports wanted to understand: What can teams learn from this? How much of the blame should fall on a player, and how much on the franchise?
In any case, some voices around the league don’t believe Mayfield’s revival would have happened in Cleveland.
“It would be a great thing to say because he’s playing well right now,” an NFC executive who scouted Mayfield told Yahoo Sports. “But… I don’t think Baker would have the success he has now. Sometimes players need a fresh start or a few fresh starts.
“This is his fourth team, so it was clear that there had to be a change of scenery several times.”
While Baker learned to dance, the Bucs returned to dancing
During the 2018 pre-draft process, talent evaluators coveted Mayfield’s arm strength and his constant threat of scrambling. They appreciated his accuracy beyond the numbers, some also praised his ability to throw into tight windows.
The Heisman Trophy recipient was productive in college and a winner.
He joined a talented Cleveland Browns offensive unit that featured a top-tier offensive line and skill players including Jarvis Landry, Nick Chubb and David Njoku. Mayfield led the Browns to the playoffs with a 2020 season that included 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions, but was largely inconsistent over the course of four years. Add in his off-field immaturity and on-field risk tolerance, as well as a torn labrum that hampered his effectiveness in 2021, and the Browns traded Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers in 2022.
“He was always crazy in his pocket and that was reflected in his release,” the NFC director said. “He forced the ball a lot, especially deep balls and then over the deep middle, which led to a lot of interceptions.
“He has become more disciplined in terms of his pocket awareness and his strengths.”
The director now looks back and thinks Mayfield was able to manage his strengths and weaknesses much better in Year 7 than he did in his first four years of career. Improved footwork may be his biggest leap.
Mayfield joined Tampa Bay in 2023 after a season split between the Panthers and Los Angeles Rams. He had played a total of ten games the year before, but the twice-moved quarterback returning from (non-throwing) shoulder surgery won just two of those games while passing for ten touchdowns and eight interceptions and a 180.3 average had in his career. meters per play.
So he came to the Bucs with plenty of experience and a determination to streamline the mixed bag of production. Mayfield and Lewis had an honest conversation about his footwork: Mayfield moved at a speed more suited to a college offense than the NFL, where it can take longer to develop route concepts. He wasn’t always on the beat for the dance necessary to accurately pass as a professional.
“If his feet are bad, I have a saying like, ‘Hey man, I know you drive a Bronco, but I want you to be smooth like a Mercedes right now,’” Lewis said. “So he knows, ‘Okay, I’m going a little too fast. I’m a little too jerky. Let me smooth out my rhythm and then, boom. ”
In Mayfield’s Week 4 matchup, the results were on display again. The Buccaneers had studied the Eagles’ defensive tendency to play deep, realizing that short and intermediate routes should open up accordingly. Mayfield released the ball in an average of 2.22 seconds, his 2.44-second average this season the fastest of his career and the second-fastest in the league, according to Next Gen Stats.
The result: Mayfield threw for 237 yards and two touchdowns in the first half alone, while ‘Slim Bake’ scored on another quarterback draw for his third touchdown as the Buccaneers built a 24-0 lead against an Eagles before halftime team that Vegas would have preferred. The Buccaneers eventually improved to 3-1 with the 33-16 upset.
“Baker is one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the league,” Bucs five-time Pro Bowl receiver Mike Evans said. “He made plays in the pocket, outside the pocket, and extended plays.
“It’s really hard to plan a game for him because he can do everything.”
What’s next for Baker Mayfield, Bucs?
The Denver Broncos have probably most effectively scheduled their games for Mayfield this season.
Seeing how depleted the Buccaneers’ offensive line was, Denver took advantage of the vulnerability, allowing Mayfield to get comfortable in the pocket while absorbing seven sacks and nine hits.
“If you can disrupt his rhythm and the ability to get on the same page with him and his wide receivers, you have a really good chance with him,” said one AFC scout. “Once he gets into that zone, he can ad lib, he starts making the harder throws and he makes them more often and that’s just his rhythm.
“Once he gets going, it’s hard to stop him.”
The defense will certainly challenge Mayfield in the coming weeks. The Falcons’ revamped defense comes at him Thursday night before games with the Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers in a month’s time.
But the Buccaneers and evaluators around the league believe Mayfield has found the right recipe to continue performing at the best level of his career.
They don’t think his career-high 106.9 passer rating is a fluke; Mayfield completed a career-best 70.5% of passes for eight touchdowns and two interceptions, in addition to his two rushing touchdowns in the first month.
Offensive coordinator Liam Cohen’s Sean McVay-style offense plays to Mayfield’s strengths, says an AFC defensive assistant who has coached in several of Mayfield’s career games. The assistant pointed out the emphasis on running, passing play action, boot legs, and drop-back passing with progress measurements.
Mayfield makes decisions that could be described as somewhere between safer and smarter, listening to coaches’ imperatives that downfield shots are important. An option, but not always the option.
“If you have to make the perfect throw, you make the wrong throw,” Lewis tells Mayfield. “So check it, live to see another, understand the first and second decision making.”
The Buccaneers are reaping the rewards of Mayfield’s personal and professional growth since he entered the league, and the bets they have made to sign him in 2023 and then extend him to a mid-market deal ahead of a new offensive line coordinator are paying off.
It’s a win for Tampa and “good for the game,” the NFC executive said.
It also might never have happened if Mayfield had stayed with the Browns, even as they struggle through Deshaun Watson’s 28th-ranked draft while Mayfield thrives away from his first home state.
“It’s no different than a personal life with relationships,” the NFC director said. “If you date someone, it may not be the same person in this relationship as the next.”
The Buccaneers know who they want Mayfield to be: himself.
He’s not trying to be his predecessor Tom Brady. Mayfield drew some ire after saying the seven-time Super Bowl champion’s leadership style left his locker room “tense” and “stressed.”
Brady clapped back during last weekend’s Bucs broadcast, saying he thought winning Super Bowls was fun — and yet the 14-0 lead the Bucs had over the Eagles when Brady spoke sent the message: Mayfield’s colorful personality can also lead to winning.
He’s no longer fighting for respect as his own team’s starting quarterback — and he’s past fighting for respect across the league.
“Last year he was in an evidentiary situation,” Lewis said. “This is more like, ‘I’m going to show that it wasn’t a fluke that I fit in.’ He is showing that he is among the top quarterbacks.
“He’s not yet where he can ultimately be, but he’s definitely working towards that.”
