Baker Mayfield “Dark Horse” MVP Candidate
June 16th, 2025
“Overlooked” Baker Mayfield has a shot to not be overlooked any longer provided the Bucs blow up (in a good way) this fall.
That’s the observation from Friend of Ira, Judy Battista of NFL.com. In putting together a list of outside-the-box favorites for an MVP season in 2025, Battista thinks the Tampa Bay quarterback has a legit shot.
But the Bucs have to win, first.
Often overlooked, Mayfield got two fifth-place votes last season, but he deserves deeper consideration. The Buccaneers had a top-five offense in 2024, and Mayfield completed 71.4 percent of his passes for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns. This season, he will throw to receivers Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Jalen McMillan and first-round pick Emeka Egbuka. Mayfield will have to overcome two things to get more serious consideration. He will have his third play-caller in as many seasons with the Buccaneers, after Liam Coen left to become the Jaguars’ head coach. (New OC Josh Grizzard was the passing game coordinator last year in Tampa.) And then there’s the fact that the Bucs play in the NFC South, considered one of the weakest divisions in the game. Thus, the schedule might not be littered with marquee matchups, though Tampa does have games against Philadelphia, Detroit and Buffalo.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. There it is again. The NFC South sucks. Joe gets it.
Notice how the national folks always have to qualify the Bucs winning ballgames. “But they play in the NFC South… ” Well, what the hell happened when the Bucs played at the current darling of the NFL, Detroit last year?
Or when they hosted the champion Eagles for whom folks can’t have enough handy Kleenex available, they talk about them so much?
But Battista is right in that it’s hard to award a quarterback an MVP honor on a team that can’t make the playoffs. And heaven forbid that team is also in the NFC South!
So if the Bucs win, say, 14 games and Mayfield plays lights out, he could win an MVP. But that coveted individual award comes on the shoulders of winning a lot of games.
June 16th, 2025 at 10:37 am
National media is funny is this regard.
Chiefs the past half decade have played in a doo doo division as well.
How about Brady’s Patriots BItD? Solid division right? Lol
June 16th, 2025 at 10:37 am
cant lead the league in int’s and get mvp
June 16th, 2025 at 10:39 am
I have him for MVP at 32 to 1. Have had it even before the draft. Also have the Bucs to win the NFC Championship and the Super Bowl.
June 16th, 2025 at 10:53 am
Bakers got a good chance for this regular season award. His issues are in end game decisions in the playoffs when games are on the line in the post season.
June 16th, 2025 at 10:56 am
Like many have mentioned, it will be hard to overcome Josh Allen, Lamar and of course if Mahomes has a bounce back year.
But as far as stats go – if he stays healthy and cuts down on the turnovers he will be up there with all of those names.
June 16th, 2025 at 10:58 am
Beautiful horse in the picture!
It’s Baker’s year. Go Bucs!
June 16th, 2025 at 11:03 am
Got to get the pics down to around 10 or so, assuming he’s having a similar number of attempts
June 16th, 2025 at 11:38 am
Let’s hope he has an MVP worthy year without the reward.
MVPs just push the pricetag up.
June 16th, 2025 at 11:42 am
If Baker had those stats in a market like New York, L.A., or even D.C., he would’ve been in serious MVP contention. No way he gets that kind of recognition playing here. There’s a reason we were massive underdogs in both Super Bowls.
June 16th, 2025 at 11:57 am
@ jimmy
“cant lead the league in int’s and get mvp”
I agree 100%.
Besides leading the NFL in turnovers Baker also led the league in fumbles (13) and was top 5 in blocked passes.
He better take better care of the football this season or he will remain just another mid-tier NFL QB.
June 16th, 2025 at 12:20 pm
Go Bucs, Go Baker
June 16th, 2025 at 12:21 pm
Buc Voyager, speaking of Super Bowl victories!! Thinking about putting $500 on the Bucs to win the Super Bowl, with a nice return of 14K… If we stay somewhat injury free watch out!!! Offense will dominate, D we have to see!! Go Tampa.
June 16th, 2025 at 12:24 pm
I bet it👍 100 will get you 4k. Let him bake!!
June 16th, 2025 at 12:46 pm
Yea, I agree with the sentiment of having to clean up the turnovers before being considered an MVP candidate. Can’t be anybody’s’ most valuable anything with inconsistent ball security.
June 16th, 2025 at 1:24 pm
Having another “elite” season like 2024, and cleaning up a couple of things will definitely put Baker in the conversation. Far cry from middling…
June 16th, 2025 at 1:38 pm
And what happened when the Bucs hosted the Redskins in the playoffs? Brilliant defensive gameplan in that one, eh, Todd.
June 16th, 2025 at 2:05 pm
Just read Baker tied with Herbert for most dropped passes last year. Found that a little surprising 🤔
June 16th, 2025 at 2:41 pm
The committee that decides this should take QB salary into consideration when deciding: A player who takes a more reasonably salary so the team can put better players around him is more valuable than a glutton who hogs so much cap space that the team has no choice but to surround him with jags.
June 16th, 2025 at 2:46 pm
Gonegator, I do believe some of the drops and maybe a few of the ints are because Baker puts a lot of mustard on some of his throws.
June 16th, 2025 at 3:00 pm
If the world makes it to the end of the season. This would be nice.
June 16th, 2025 at 3:14 pm
Lmao… I feel like I’m living in an alternate reality talking about Baker being a Darkhorse candidate for MVP…smh
I am 100% rooting for this guy, but I just don’t think he’s MVP material. Despite all the success he’s had these last 2 seasons in Tampa, regardless of how we finished in the playoffs each of those years, he’s still missing something. It’s winning in primetime. It’s winning when all the pundits pick you to win, not when everyone least expects you to. I don’t care about the gaudy stats, it’s about being clutch with the game on the line. Mahomes isn’t lighting up the stat sheet every time he plays, yet he’s in the conversation every year for MVP, not because of how the national media views him and the Chiefs, but he’s a killer. You want to find the next MVP in the league, find the guy you fear the most when the game is on the line and he’s got the final possession. Sorry, that aint Baker, not yet at least.
June 16th, 2025 at 3:19 pm
Horse in the Pic brings to mind Devin White will be playing in black this season.
Bet White to win Comeback Player of the Year or Mayfield to win MVP and you are still throwing your money away on a very dark horse.
June 16th, 2025 at 3:23 pm
I can’t see this team winning 14 games in the regular season.
10? absolutely – 11? likely – 12? maybe… – 13? – outside chance but unlikely
Hope I’m wrong and the Bucs dominate from the word go and get a 1 seed in 2025 – but thats probably not going to happen. This team is very talented, but has a lot of work and growing to do before it reaches its full potential this year.
14 wins in the regular season btw means nothing other than being guaranteed a playoff spot (ask Detroit and Minnesota) – 13, 12 or 11 wins does the exact same thing….
What matters most is making the playoffs – with a healthy team, that’s peaking and playing it’s best football in December and January.
The 2020 Buccaneers were 7-5 heading into December and never looked back – made the playoffs as an 11-5 team and won out on the road beating HOFers Brees, Rodgers and Mahomes in succession to secure Tampa Bay’s 2nd Lombardi trophy in convincing fashion!
June 16th, 2025 at 3:33 pm
jimmy & marine
careful fellas lol…..
folks on here will call you a “hater” and claim you dont know squat about football lol….
GO BUCS!!!!!
June 16th, 2025 at 3:35 pm
Maybe not brilliant but a lot better than what Dan Campbell and the Lions came up with.
Held them to 23 in spite of not making them punt.
If your savior from last year, ole Red, had just done his part it’s a playoff victory instead of a defeat. Do you remember what you predicted the Lions would do to the Commanders due to their full-time DC and superior HC? I do. Do you need a reminder?
I’d say that probably did have something to do with it Fred. Baker does throw with a lot of velocity 🏈.
June 16th, 2025 at 3:40 pm
jimmy and Marine Buc, you haters don’t know squat about football.
June 16th, 2025 at 3:40 pm
@ 813
LOL!
When low IQ folks can’t win a debate with logic, facts or stats they just resort to insults and emotional dribble.
As a long time JBF observer I have become both immune and accustomed to it.
June 16th, 2025 at 3:47 pm
I am a Baker fan. But, IIRC, he unfortunately led the league in interceptions in 2024.
The two? wrestled away from McMillain put Baker over the top as the league “leader” in that unfortunate category.
And, some were the result of panicked play calling that inexplicably abandoned creativity and slipped into consecutive play calls which were nothing more than just hoping that Baker would make something happen on a plain Jane “get slaughtered in the shotgun waiting for a slow developing deep route to come open” plays that cost the Bucs the Cowboys game.
Wins count the most, but reducing INTs is also important if he is to be a leader in MVP consideration.
June 16th, 2025 at 4:14 pm
@ 813
I present to you exhibit A:
Kunton Smith
“jimmy and Marine Buc, you haters don’t know squat about football.”
June 16th, 2025 at 4:34 pm
If he was in a market, they push like New York or Kansas City, etc. he would not be a dark horse. He was the third best quarterback in the NFL last year behind Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. The only reason you didn’t hear his name is because he had about 6INT‘s too many
This year I fully expect him to be over 4700 yards passing, 43 touchdowns or more, with the interceptions down to about 10.
Definitely a strong MVP candidate
June 16th, 2025 at 4:52 pm
Hate to be negative but I don’t know if we will ever see a Buc get that award unless it gets voted on after the Super Bowl is over and the Bucs win that Super Bowl. The closest should have been 2020. Brady has a great season, leads us to a Super Bowl win, and A-Aron wins the MVP. Brady didn’t even get a vote. Would we have been Super Bowl contenders in 2020 if Brady was not around? Absolutely not. We would have just been eating a few W’s and throwing up a lot more L’s with Winston while sitting in the stands watching the Chiefs beat New Orleans or Green Bay.
Next year, we almost get back again, Brady has a great year, gets 10 votes, but again, A-Aron wins with 39 votes. A-Aron’s playoff record those 2 years, 1-2. Brady 5-1.
June 16th, 2025 at 5:33 pm
The NFL’s version of the Heisman, only Qb’s. Gimme a break. Did Barkley win it last year? It’s BS anymore with these awards, they’ve gone the way of the old Pro Bowl and College Allstar Game. I remember when they gave the Heisman to George Rogers over Hugh Green. George Rogers? Nothing against him but Green was a beast, was a beast for us AND had better numbers across the board than LT coming out of college. It’s a dog and pony show and if it was me playing I wouldn’t bat an eye at it for what it is.
June 16th, 2025 at 5:37 pm
MVP of the Bucs for sure. One player that we cannot afford to lose for multiple games (or the season) due to injury.
June 16th, 2025 at 5:48 pm
I guess, and it makes sense, that there will always be those that think football is a one dimensional game. For example “Mahomes always makes it happen. When Baker makes it happen then I’ll believe”. There are other factors that go into a winning team. Coaches, owners, teammates, both sides of the ball, game planning, decision making and much more. And there are 2 extremes with teams, those that have a first class “system” and those that have a last class “system”, bottom of the barrel. Currently, that’s Kansas City and Cleveland. And it sure isn’t ONLY because of the quarterbacks. If it were, there would be more Patriots, 49ers, and Kansas City types but there aren’t because it is extremely rare to achieve that level of greatness as a whole in an organization.
You few that think a quarterback isn’t great until he wills a superbowl or two are just whistling in the wind. When you are drafted to a team that is always known as a joke and their record was 1-31 before you showed up and in 3 years you beat Pittsburgh in a playoff game and would have beaten KC if not for the worst targeting no call in the history of the game that cost you a touchdown and the game, you might be elite. Couple that with when you did beat Pittsburgh, and that was the first time they had equaled that feat since before you were even born and Kansas City 2 games later played in the superbowl, well, actually, you are elite because you put the whole organization, utterly terrible as it was, on your 23 year old back and willed THAT team to THAT level of play. Well, that just takes too much effort for the “experts” to realize what happened. But that doesn’t change the fact that you did it. Not to mention you played half the 2021 season with a fractured shoulder and a completely torn labrum. Yeah, that guy, is probably elite. If nothing more than elite effort for the team he plays for.
June 16th, 2025 at 5:58 pm
Don’t care about MVP because it’s not a real reward anymore like it used to be. Barkley should have won the MVP and Derrick Henry should have won at least 2 years. Get to a conference championship this year and Superbowl next year. Some times fans worry about the worng thing I rather Superbowls than players awards.
June 16th, 2025 at 6:05 pm
“When low IQ folks can’t win a debate with logic, facts or stats they just resort to insults and emotional dribble.”
This reminds me of someone 🤔
June 16th, 2025 at 6:16 pm
Even if the Bucs have Tom Brady, they wouldn’t win MVP! Oh wait! Yeah…
June 16th, 2025 at 7:00 pm
Baker wins MVP it means the Bucs are out of the playoffs early because the running game regressed. MVP stats require more throwing than is ideal.
June 16th, 2025 at 7:02 pm
There were 3 interceptions that hit the receivers hands and were either taken away or were ricochets. So Baker was guilty of 3 too many interceptions and most of the fumbles didn’t really hurt us.
Apparently, he didn’t have too many of his passess blocked because he was numero uno in completion percentage with 72%.
So in the end there really isn’t that much needed to cut out. It’s just hyperbole by the usual “fans”.
June 16th, 2025 at 7:17 pm
813bucboi…and Marine.
You forgot about being called a troll.
It’s all the rage on JBF these days.
June 16th, 2025 at 7:21 pm
Super Bowl MVP is the only MVP Baker should care to win.
The Glazers better clear some cash, this kids gonna get paid!
June 16th, 2025 at 8:23 pm
He could be a Dark Horse MVP candidate. He certainly has no shortage of neigh-sayers.
June 16th, 2025 at 8:36 pm
They didn’t give him comeback player of the year in 2023. It’s rigged
June 16th, 2025 at 9:31 pm
These analysts preach with such conviction. In the Dallas game, Baker thru a perfect deep ball( thought he couldn’t throw deep) to McMillan who had it taken away from him resulting in a Baker INT? In NO game Baker threw 3 INT ‘s and the Bucs won 51-24. I can keep going but some of the band camp boys who post here have heard that interceptions are “bad.” That is the extent of their contribution about Mayfield’s play. Mayfield INT’s for his first 7 years in the NFL are not significantly different than Brady’s first seven years. I am certain that Baker isn’t thrilled with any INT but they are part of the game. Mayfield isn’t remotely close to being Jameis Winston. Find something else to complain about so you can keep pretending you football gurus.
June 16th, 2025 at 9:44 pm
Comparing Dan Campbell to Todd Bowles is like comparing a prime ribeye steak to tofu. The Lions lost because Goff had his worst game as a Lion. A wretched game losing performance. The Lions defense was shredded with injury way more than the Bucs. The midgiot who keeps trying to spew such nonsense is kind of cute, though. In a special kind of way.
June 16th, 2025 at 11:57 pm
There’s not a single player on that list, besides Hunter, who should be considered a dark horse. Swap him with Lamar and add Mahomes and Burrow, and that’s honestly the preseason list of favorites to win MVP.