It’s hard to believe that franchises like the Cleveland Browns and Carolina Panthers didn’t feel Baker Mayfield could continue to be part of their organizations.
The Browns and Panthers are among the worst-run franchises in the NFL. If either of those teams decide somebody can’t play, you need to get second, third and fourth opinions to make sure their analysis is on the mark.
Mayfield is about to play his second game of his third season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night against the host Houston Texans and nobody views him the way he was looked at in 2021 and 2022.
Mayfield has guided Tampa Bay to the postseason in each of the past two seasons, winning one game in 2023 and coming up empty last season.
His development into a solid quarterback is one of the reasons the Buccaneers are viewed as favorites in the NFC South. In fact, Mayfield is the best quarterback in the division.
Overall, Mayfield isn’t a Top 10 quarterback but he is part of the next tier.
The good is that he established career bests for completion percentage (71.4) and touchdown passes (41) last season.
He has always had a strong arm with a good accuracy rate on short and medium throws. Mayfield also keeps growing as a leader.
The bad is that he led the NFL with 16 interceptions in 2024. Too many risky throws, often due to being overly aggressive.
Shaky decision-making has plagued Mayfield, particularly when he tossed a career-worst 21 interceptions and completed less than 60 percent of his passes in 2019 for the Browns.
Oh yeah, Cleveland.
The Browns took him No. 1 overall in the 2018 draft after Mayfield won the Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma.
In his third season, he looked like the real deal as he threw 26 touchdown passes against eight interceptions.
But there’s also this: The Browns have one playoff win since they re-entered the NFL in 1999.
The quarterback to deliver that was Mayfield, who guided Cleveland to 48 points in a postseason win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Jan. 10, 2021.
Those were happy times in the Mayfield/Browns relationship. Mayfield starred in Progressive commercials in which he was depicted as living at then-First Energy Stadium.
And why not? It did seem like he was going to own the place for a long time.
But he regressed the next season and so did the team and suddenly he was traded to the Panthers.
He bottomed out with Carolina, going 1-5 in six starts and being let go during the season.
Meanwhile, Tom Brady retired following the 2022 season so the Buccaneers needed a quarterback.
They took a flier on Mayfield on a one-year, $4 million deal plus incentives. Mayfield made sure there was no drop-off in quarterback production by topping 4,000 passing yards each of the past two seasons and throwing for 69 touchdowns, including a career-best 41 last season.
Just 12 months after Mayfield’s arrival, the Bucs gave him a three-year, $100 million deal.
Now Mayfield, 30, is entrenched as the starter of the Buccaneers. He tossed three scoring passes in Tampa Bay’s season-opening win over the Atlanta Falcons and seems primed for another big season.
The next step is whether or not Mayfield can guide Tampa Bay on a deep postseason run. He has made the playoffs in three of his seven NFL seasons and has a 2-3 starting record in the postseason.
The Buccaneers could be challenged by the Falcons in the NFC South but the New Orleans Saints and Panthers are long shots. It would be a disappointment if Tampa Bay misses the playoffs. But can the Bucs make a run?
So is it fair to expect an NFC Championship Game appearance when prognosticators tell you the Philadelphia Eagles (for sure) and others like the Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams are better bets to get there?
It definitely is fair. That Brady guy led a fifth-seeded Bucs’ squad to a blowout 31-9 Super Bowl win over the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2020 season.
History might not repeat but a now-secure Mayfield should have his sights on a massive playoff breakthrough. He is due.
