Did Bucs Offensive Line Help Baker Mayfield Grow?
May 7th, 2025
Transformation.
Well, this is a different angle.
Baker Mayfield turned 30 last month. He’s adulting in the NFL. He’s the quarterback of one of the better teams in the league and has led the Bucs to a division title the past two seasons while posting career numbers each season.
Did Mayfield grow into the position as a Bucs leader thanks to hanging around his offensive linemen?
That’s what Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht seems to think.
Licht admits he might be biased because he was an old offensive lineman for Tom Osbourne at Nebraska. But Licht thinks Mayfield so often spending time with the linemen away from One Buc Palace has helped his growth.
Licht explained this to popular sports radio and television personality Adam Schein on a recent edition of “Schein on Sports,” heard exclusively on SiriusXM Radio.
“He definitely has an edge to him,” Licht said of Mayfield. “And it’s a great thing, and we love that. And I think that’s what endeared him to the team when he first got here.
“And you know, he’s not afraid to lower his shoulder. Sometimes it makes me cringe a little bit, but he’s not afraid to take on linebackers. But off the field, he really is a caring person. He’s a fun guy to be around. He loves playing football like a kid in the candy store every time he’s out there.
“And I’ve said this several times: He’s like an offensive lineman in a quarterback’s body. And, you hang around offensive linemen … you get the smart mature guy that also isn’t afraid to throw down. So that’s kind of what Baker is, and everybody just loves Baker.”
This sort of reminds Joe of what Warren Sapp once said about offensive linemen. “They’re like cattle. They all hang together like a herd.” But Mayfield is with those cattle all the time.
Maybe Licht is right. Maybe offensive linemen mentality has rubbed off on Mayfield and helped him develop?
Either way, the Bucs have a quarterback. And who dreamed that the day Tom Brady finally retired for good?
May 7th, 2025 at 4:53 am
8-9, 9-8, 10-7 in the worst division those 3 years doesnt deserve the great team label, bro, gives us a couple 12-5 seasons and a non swiss cheese defense and we can talk
May 7th, 2025 at 4:55 am
My bad, you didnt say great, you said better teams, thats fair
May 7th, 2025 at 5:07 am
It’s a mixed bag, Guzzie. Take it from one who has witnessed every minute of Buccaneer football in history, the Mayfield teams qualify as great.
The old NFC Central was the black & blue division. Instead of that label sticking with the original four, it feels like it tagged along with our Bucs to the NFC South. We may be Governor of the trailer park, but we’re still Governor.
Around here, that’s great compared across the previous 49 seasons.
May 7th, 2025 at 5:13 am
Baker has hung around his offensive lineman forever and that playstyle goes back to college.
May 7th, 2025 at 5:23 am
He is definitely one of the better QBs in the league. I don’t think he’s ever had the same offensive coordinator two years in a row.
May 7th, 2025 at 5:25 am
Guzzie why do you wish to come here and embarrass yourself with ignorant opinons. A troll?
May 7th, 2025 at 5:35 am
A Q.B.’s best friend should be an offensive lineman, men. It’s great these guys care about each other. I’m excited to see year two with this same offense. We’re starting the same O line for two years in a row, a very good one. Baker year two, promoting Grizz keeping it the same. Not to mention we added a top receiver, and maybe a gem in Tez Johnson. Should be a fun year.
May 7th, 2025 at 5:50 am
Baker – thank goodness the Bucs got him when they did. He has an offensive linemen’s mentality and maybe a linebacker’s too. Wouldn’t trade him for the world.
May 7th, 2025 at 6:20 am
Fans will hate this comment, but I will stand by it. Baker is too short for his style of game. He’s got everything else working for hm, but he’s a pocket passer that is undersized, and yes, it does matter when your line is an average height of 6’5″ and you’re facing exotic defenses trying to fit the ball into a tight seam.
There are so many parallels with guys like Drew Brees and yet he was able to level up with the help of a very smart Sean Peyton. Baker will give us hope, he will win us some games, with the talent he has around him, he’ll get us to the playoffs, but he will struggle to win the games that really count. I just think Baker needs EVERYTHING to be working right if we ever want to sniff the Super Bowl again with him under center.
May 7th, 2025 at 6:44 am
Zoocomics,
You are completely wrong. There are plenty of 6’5″ NFL QB’s who washed out with their teams. Jalen Hurts last year SB QB is closer to Mayfield height than 6’5″.
May 7th, 2025 at 6:57 am
@Gipper…we will see…I’ll be rooting for him man.
May 7th, 2025 at 7:04 am
Lol Hold on lemme get this str8, what your saying is Baker will NEVER win a SB because…(wait for it)…he’s not tall enough??…well, there it is folks …smh ok that’s enough comment reading for the day…I’m losing brain cells by the second trying to understand y’all’s train of thought.
May 7th, 2025 at 7:24 am
This team’s composition AND offensive style fits Baker perfectly. And that’s why he’s excelled for these past 2 seasons here. Not unlike the one season up in Cleveland in 2020 where he led them to the 11-5 season (his only winning season there). That team (with Nick Chubb & Kareen Hunt) ran the ball a lot (and quite effectively), and Baker did an excellent job of distributing the ball around to some very good receivers (Landry, Beckham, Higgins) and TEs (Hooper, Njoku) as well as his RBs. And oh ya, his OLine protectd him very well (only 26 sacks).
May 7th, 2025 at 7:53 am
Defense Rules- Mayfield got in the 4th game of his rookie year down 2 touchdowns. With a team that had lost 35 of their last 36 games. Won 7 games and tied one. Lost 5. Winning record. New head coach his second year, was Kitchens. An idiot according to Mayfield. 3rd year second round of playoffs. 4th year shoulder injury requiring surgery and he talked Stefanski into playing through it. Couldn’t throw on the run. Got surgery following season and was rewarded with the news he’d been replaced. I jumped on a plane to see Carolina’s opening game year 5. Against the Browns! Mayfield got the lead with 45 seconds left in the game. Cleveland kicked a 57 yard field goal on final play. Idiot Matt Rhule scapegoated Mayfield and benched him. Carolina Fired Rhule after 5 games. Mayfield then went to the Rams who couldn’t beat anyone that year and rallied a new team to a couple of big wins. If you’re selling Mayfields ability to make everyone around him better short then you’re not paying attention. His superpower is making everyone around him better. Every team he’s played for was a better team the instant he hit the field. That’s his superpower and it’d take a blind man not to see it.
May 7th, 2025 at 8:20 am
Baker has been filmed on pregame shows sitting at his locker, headphones on, just staring at pictures of sporting legends – Kobe stands out in memory. Dude his channeling his Mamba Mentality.
Zoocomics with the hot take that a QB needs everything working right around him to sniff a Super Bowl… well no spit! Ask Joe Burrow if it’d be nice to have other things working well around him. Shoot that was KC’s downfall in the Super Bowl last year. Grass is green, what water touches is wet, and Brees and Russell Wilson are short-king champions. Any other useful insights?
May 7th, 2025 at 8:21 am
Baker is the same size as Drew Brees
May 7th, 2025 at 8:24 am
To me, Bake is the ultimate competitor. You see it when he extends plays. I do think he sometimes is too juiced up on the first series of games and tends to overthrows.
May 7th, 2025 at 8:39 am
I think it is the other way around. Baker’s mentality has rubbed off on the offensive lineman. It started with the stiff arm he delivered to a Vikings defender in his first game as a buccaneer.
Licht described him perfectly when he said “..you get the mature guy who isn’t afraid to throw down.”
May 7th, 2025 at 8:57 am
We do have and have had quality players , some of whom are guaranteed to be in the hall of fame , and more who could be , that being said , We should not be struggling to finish on top of the worst division in football finishing slightly above or below .500, year after year, just to get knocked out early in the playoffs . Until We figure out why, no one ‘s coaching or play , should be given a pass .
May 7th, 2025 at 9:46 am
DR
Baker lead QBs in TOs last season, I’m not quite sure how you equate that excelling.
Zoocomics is correct, Baker is entertaining and will win some games but in the playoffs when you need your QB to elevate his play and those around him, he won’t do it. At least not yet
But since he’s the QB of my favorite team, I’m rooting for him to get it done. We’ll see what happens….
May 7th, 2025 at 10:46 am
Baker wins us a Super Bowl hes going to be remembered as the greatest Bucs QB of all time, hes gonna own all the records if ĥe keeps playing at this level, and its nit quite Kurt Warner story, buts college walkon, heisman, 1st pick, to 4 teams in 1 year, to SB champ, pretty good story, plus he really good dude….#guzzietrollsmh
May 7th, 2025 at 11:05 am
Actually Mayfield is half an inch taller than Drew Brees. So there you go, he is a giant in stature.
May 7th, 2025 at 11:27 am
Kenton Smith I agree with your take on Baker. He made every team he played on better in spite of some horrific circumstances. BTW idiot Matt Rhule didn’t bench Baker, he got fired after 49ers destroyed the Panthers 37-14, a game that Baker was injured in. Idiot interim Steve Wilkes benched Baker by not restoring him as the starter when he was ready to return and instead demoted him to 3rd on the depth chart. The Panthers panicked, fired Rhule, traded McCaffrey to the 49ers and benched Baker. If they were smart they would have stayed with Baker and they wouldn’t have been the crappie team they have been the last several years.
May 7th, 2025 at 11:28 am
Kenton Smith I agree with your take on Baker. He made every team he played on better in spite of some horrific circumstances. BTW idiot Matt Rhule didn’t bench Baker, he got fired after 49ers destroyed the Panthers 37-14, a game that Baker was injured in. Idiot interim Steve Wilkes benched Baker by not restoring him as the starter when he was ready to return and instead demoted him to 3rd on the depth chart. The Panthers panicked, fired Rhule, traded McCaffrey to the 49ers and benched Baker. If they were smart they would have stayed with Baker.
May 7th, 2025 at 11:49 am
Sorry about the duplication
May 7th, 2025 at 12:05 pm
Most people don’t understand who they have under center with Baker. There is nothing he can’t do in his mind and so far in his young life it’s been true. He thrives on people telling him he can’t do this or he can’t do that because he will bend time and space to see he proves you wrong. Coming out of high school no one gave him a scholarship but small schools, so he walked on at Texas Tech. Most people would have went to the small schools that wanted you, that were the “safe” bet. Then, without calling them, he just shows up, out of the blue, at Oklahoma. Bob Stoops was like, and who are you? Back then you had to sit out a year if you transfered, makes sense to me NCAA 🤢 his first year he wins QB1. All the fans were like who in the world is “Baker” Mayfield. Well they sure found out, quick. Oklahoma has had some amazing Qb’s that won the heisman, like 5 I believe but none were like Baker. Baker was different. There is a reason ESPN keeps voting him the #1 college quarterback in the 2000’s. Think about that for a minute. Out of all the great quarterbacks to come up through the college game they keep voting old slow poke, walkon Mayfield the #1 QB1. Walkons dont ever win the Heisman. Oh but Baker did. I could go on and on about the stuff he did at Cleveland but Kenton did a good job on that. Oh one thing at Cleveland. He played 5 games with a fractured shoulder plus the torn labrum. Who does that? The point is, you guys saying he can’t win a superbowl or things have to be perfect for him to do it, dont really know him. But maybe you are right, no one really knows but I can tell you this, if it is “humanly” possible he will win one because he WILL NOT be denied. It isn’t in his DNA to fail. And winning a superbowl is on his bucket list. I have never followed a sports figure in my entire life but I can make an exception with Baker because Baker is a fighter he will not be denied and based on that he will most definitely win a superbowl for Tampa. It’s too bad there aren’t more Bakers in the world. I can tell you this, if there were, it would be a lot more fun to watch.
May 7th, 2025 at 12:13 pm
Zoocomics
“but he’s a pocket passer that is undersized
Pocket passer? That’s Trask. Nothing wrong with it and as you mention Trask is tall enough to do it.
Think HOFer Fran Tarkenton with slightly smaller cojones. He was 6-0 190, smaller than Baker but in fairness so were the linemen so it all comes out in the wash. Tarkenton had courage but perhaps more discipline than Baker and he knew better than to take on LBs and DB’s. Baker will take on ANYBODY.
We all admire that but it’s scary at time…still always fun to watch and it fires up the team. Fran would make daring runs but he always knew when the run was over. For Baker the runs NEVER over until the whistle blows.
May 7th, 2025 at 12:19 pm
Both Fran Tarkenton and Sonny Jurgenson were shrimp QBs. So, what? Mike Glennon was a giraffe and look where it got him. Baker is feisty with a capital F, smart, and plays with a boatload of guts and heart. Still hard to believe Bowles and Licht rescued him from the NFL dumpster.
May 7th, 2025 at 12:19 pm
Yet another great quote. Sapp’s hysterical.
May 7th, 2025 at 12:28 pm
DR … ‘This team’s composition AND offensive style fits Baker perfectly. And that’s why he’s excelled for these past 2 seasons here.’
Kenton … I stand by those 2 statements. This Bucs’ team wasn’t built around a QB; the QB (Baker) FITS this team, very very well. It all works together. Notice how Baker’s stats improved dramatically in Year 2 here? He had the same number of passing attempts (570 in 2024 versus 566 in 2023) but his completions improved dramatically (from 364 completions … 64.3% … in 2023 to 407 completions … 71.4% … in 2024).
So WHY? Was it because 2024 was his 2nd year as a Buc? Partially. Was it because of coaching? Partially. Was it because those catching his passes were so much better? Maybe a little. Was it because his running game improved a BUNCH, and made our offense much less predictable? Ya, I think that had a lot to do with it. Actually, the most to do with it.
May 7th, 2025 at 1:14 pm
Great article. Love it.
May 7th, 2025 at 2:10 pm
Until we get to a NFC Championship Baker Mayfield is Alex Smith he can get to pro bowls but can’t get you over the hump. Alex Smith was winning that division as well but they would lose in the first and second round.
May 7th, 2025 at 2:45 pm
The team has the potential to be great, whether we fumble a jet sweep at our own 21 with the game under control is another question. We have the players and they have the ability to win big games at big times and if we are going to do it, this seems like the year. Mike & Lavonte will not be here in future years and those guys you just cannot replace. They deserve another ring for sure. Go get it
May 7th, 2025 at 2:52 pm
Baker is not a pocket passer. Every pass I’ve seen from him on the run has been money. He may be the best outside the pocket passer in the league other than the kid in KC. I don’t think the offensive line rubs off on Baker, I think Baker rubs his mentality off on the entire offense. When he came out against Minnesota a couple years ago and ran over a few dudes I knew he would have the love of Tampa Bay.
Has anyone seen his comparisons in numbers to Drew Brees before he got picked up by the slimiest of saints? They are nearly identical.
May 7th, 2025 at 3:00 pm
Esteban. Alex Smith was a better runner than Baker Mayfield but less be honest the Chiefs wasn’t winning a Superbowl with him. And right now we are in the same position they were in . NFC Championship or bust!!
May 7th, 2025 at 4:50 pm
Let’s look at it from the perspective of what could Baker have done different that would have changed the way the playoffs went this season.
We played Washington in the wildcard game after spanking them earlier in the year. The opposing coach kept the ball out of Bakers hands becausehe knew that was the only way they could beat us. Baker threw 50% of his normal throws. Normal 35 throws vs.18 throws. If Baker would have got his normal 35 there is no doubt we win that game, not even close. We averaged 8 plays to scoring in the game. Our COACHS didnt have an answer for Dan Quinns game plan. Washington goes on to the NFC Championship Game and loses to Kansas City. Kansas City goes to the superbowl. Several weeks earlier we played Kansas City. Baker puts a late drive together to tie the game. The COACH decides to NOT go for 2 and beat KC. This tells us IF the COACHING staff would have done things different it is totally conceivable we would have ended up in the superbowl and we had already beat the superbowl champs 33-16 earlier in the season.
So you tell me who’s fault it is that we didn’t go and even win the superbowl this year???
It’s far from Bakers fault. He puts us in the position to win but the coaches for whatever reason don’t finish the job.
May 7th, 2025 at 5:02 pm
Davy. If Baker didn’t fumble the ball on the 12 yard line we win that game. Not to mention the three and outs . Against the lions he threw a pick and lost the game. He’s not a bad quarterback but he can’t get us over the hump so I will ask you this question if we don’t get to the NFC Championship should the bucs draft a quarterback in the first round? Now I don’t know if you a real bucs fan or you just here because of Baker Mayfield?
May 7th, 2025 at 5:24 pm
Baker is 1-2 in the postseason as a Buc.
19-17 in total.
Led the league in int’s.
Turned the ball over in the biggest moment of our lone playoff game the past year.
He’s better than Jameis, but just by a hair.
I do like his attitude and work ethic. But he’s not a SB type QB.
Prove me wrong dawg! Do it and I’ll shut up.
May 7th, 2025 at 5:42 pm
You know onei you are the type that doesn’t want the truth. I have told you 10 times where to go to watch a jet sweep being run right but you either refuse to spend the 5 minutes it takes to watch that or you just refuse to see it. Which ever it is it doesn’t matter. Baker IS the reason we are even there in the first place according to the HC.
You didn’t answer how you win sitting on the sidelines. Oh and by the way you can watch another sweep being run properly in the 2000 Nebraska-Oklahoma game. It’s not hard to know the truth some just don’t want to know it.
May 7th, 2025 at 5:44 pm
Just so you boys know there are 23 other players that have to do their jobs. Just wasn’t sure if you knew that…
May 7th, 2025 at 5:45 pm
Oneilbuc, if you were a real Bucs fan you’d support Mayfield. Full stop. But suggesting going 1st round QB next year if things don’t go your way. You’re a whiny little bitc… Oneilbuc and I’m sure our entire team would agree with that if they saw your idiot posts.
May 7th, 2025 at 5:54 pm
It is likely reciprocall.