Baker Mayfield On Pace For 34 Touchdowns, 4 Interceptions And 3,842 Yards
September 29th, 2025
Weeks ago Joe wrote about how expecting an improved season from Baker Mayfield is unfair and unrealistic after his stunning 2024 campaign.
Mayfield was that damn good last year. Joe was not knocking Mayfield.
Sure, Mayfield could cut his league leading interception total, and he could slash his league-leading fumble total. But after throwing for 41 touchdowns and 4,500 yards with a 71.4 percent completion rate last season, all career highs, expecting more from Mayfield felt like thinking Bucky Irving would up his yards-per-carry total.
Through four games, Mayfield is on pace for 34 touchdowns, 4 interceptions and 3,842 yards.
That’s darn good missing starters on the offensive line. He’s leading the NFL in fumbles again (not good), but Mayfield has engineered three fourth-quarter comebacks in four tries (damn good).
What’s got Joe’s attention is Mayfield completing 59.7 percent of his passes. That’s a low number, a reflection of the shaky offensive line too many drops and, yeah, a little bit of reality returning for Mayfield.
Joe wouldn’t trade Mayfield for any quarterback, but the Bucs will need to keep getting better around him to reach their ultimate goals.
The defense’s stunning second half yesterday was a great start.
September 29th, 2025 at 7:19 am
So Joe you would not trade Baker for Josh Allen?? Really??
September 29th, 2025 at 7:32 am
Baker tried to hard yesterday. Looking for the big play, instead of the right play. When he sees the film he’ll be pissed he had Bucky to his left, might’ve scored. I can’t blame him for pressing, falling behind early by 14 doesn’t help. That’s what really needs to get fixed, Baker is fine. Bowles has talked about starting fast, and having a killer instinct on defense. In his coaching tenure here, that has always been a problem, one that Bowles can’t seem to solve.
September 29th, 2025 at 7:50 am
There was a clear pass interference against Godwin down the right sideline.
September 29th, 2025 at 7:53 am
I think Joe is being hyperbolic about not trading for any quarterback. Obviously that’s not a realistic thing. However, Josh Allen is one of the very very few that I would prefer to have in a perfect world. However, very happy we have bake. Much better than many alternatives. And much better than we’ve had here as well.
September 29th, 2025 at 7:53 am
“Joe wouldn’t trade Mayfield for any quarterback, but the Bucs will need to keep getting better around him to reach their ultimate goals”
“Alas my lord, your wisdom is consumed in confidence”
September 29th, 2025 at 8:17 am
I know what to do to fix the blocked punts. Fire the current guy. The Aussies are flooding NCAA. The played rugby or AFL Aussie Rules Football growing up The kick on the run and can run the ball too. So they roll out to avoid the rush than kick. The can roll left or right. Try out these three guys and pick one. I would pick the guy who is equally effective rolling left or right. That way they are unpredictable. The stationary American punter can be planned for by the rush because v they know where he will be. Move the guy around and all the plans are busted. Here they are;
Here are a few Australian (or Australia-associated) punters who were either cut or placed on practice squads / waived rather than making or staying on a 53-man active roster:
Matthew “Matt” Hayball New Orleans Saints He was waived / cut by the Saints in August 2025.
Cameron Johnston Pittsburgh Steelers He was cut (released) by the Steelers in August 2025.
Mitch Wishnowsky San Francisco 49ers / Washington Commanders Formerly with the 49ers, he was released and later signed to the Commanders’ practice squad in September 2025, but then released again.
September 29th, 2025 at 8:18 am
The defense’s stunning second half yesterday was because for the first time this season we saw more tight coverage. First half almost all of the passes caught the closest defender was 3 yds away from the catch. That is what this defense does.
Soft, passive coverage.
Look at Phily, yes the defenders were holding a lot but they were side by side with the receivers. For some reason Coach Bowles defense likes to sit back and let the receivers have uncontested catches. I mean sometimes we see a blitz is called and the DBs standing 10 yds off. Why you think the Eagles a run heavy team deided to come out throwing the ball.
In the second half the coverage was more tight and our defenders got their hands in some passes. Unfortynately I dont have faith that this defense will learn from the second half and tries to play like this again. It is probable that we will again go to our precious soft and passive coverage. And giving up TDs on the first drives. Seems that is what we think is best.
Go Bucs
September 29th, 2025 at 8:23 am
Well according to those predictions, Baker is trading 7 tuddies for 12 fewer picks, a good trade on my book
September 29th, 2025 at 8:26 am
The Pewter plank called Baker Mayfield a LOSER in their podcast
This is utter stupidity and disgusting. Said his interception on the goal line killed the game for the Bucs. I’d like these uncoordinated buffuns learn how to write facts instead of shock articles.
Their journalism deserves a big fat F.
Sick of Journalists who deal in their offensive journalism.
September 29th, 2025 at 8:31 am
Mayfield’s numbers (if he stays healthy) will be close to last year. Projecting 45 TD’s, 4500 yrds, 68% comp, 10 INT’s.
Slow start has been attributed rightly to a few things; 1) Baker didn’t play a minute in preseason, 2) the O line has been an injured mess and even yesterday Baker got way too much heat;3) more than a few critical drops.
Baker will be getting the ball to Otton and Culp more often as season goes along. The tight ends are having to help too much on Oline blocking. Grizz will use 2 back sets with Bucky and White more frequently. Mayfield will hold up his end. Just need the O line to do more until Goedeke returns. Would like to see more of Klein at RG.
September 29th, 2025 at 8:47 am
Let’s see how the second half of the season plays out with most the starters are healthy again.
In Brady’s first season he lost to the Chiefs. They lost the game in the first half but shut the Chiefs down in the second half.
The Bucs beat the Chiefs in the Super bowl 🏈 because they learned how to stop the Chiefs from their second half performance loss in 2020.
The Bucs are seen as a feared team by teams and analysts alike.
Whoever is the healthiest in the Super bowl has the better chance of winning.
Hopefully the Bucs have a repeat performance in the Super bowl 🏈 in 2026.
September 29th, 2025 at 8:51 am
He choked. If he gets all the love for a comeback, he should get the blame for that boneheaded INT.
September 29th, 2025 at 8:53 am
i’d take 34 Touchdowns, 4 Interceptions And 3,842 Yards if it = more Ws
but if the defense keeps playing half games and punting keeps giving up td’s then it wont matter. baker could have 4500 yards and 40 tds and they wont outscore what the defense and punt team is giving up. it will be even worse than last year.
just glad chase is back in a groove. that’ll help.
September 29th, 2025 at 9:00 am
“but if the defense keeps playing half games and punting keeps giving up td’s then it wont matter.”
Terrible caveat, with all of our offensive problems you pivot to the side of the ball that saw the field for the first time AFTER the offense squandered the opening drive, that led to the blocked punt, just for our offense to piss away it’s 2nd drive? 🤣
September 29th, 2025 at 9:04 am
Baker is a keeper. One of the best. And the throw was tipped. Still was an ill-advised red zone throw on first down. That was the killer, first down. –Joe
Hindsight yes, maybe should have went for a field goal instead. A lot of would of, could of, should of in life and football.
September 29th, 2025 at 9:36 am
Joe … ‘What’s got Joe’s attention is Mayfield completing 59.7 percent of his passes. That’s a low number, a reflection of the shaky offensive line too many drops and, yeah, a little bit of reality returning for Mayfield.’
Being a tad harsh Joe, mostly because Baker is dealing with his THIRD new OC in 3 years & it is the start of the season (takes awhile to get ‘adjusted’?).
o 2023: Bucs started off 3-1 in their first 4 games (our only loss was to the Eagles who pummeled us 25-11). In those 4 games, Baker was 87-of-126 (69.0%) for 882 yds (221 YPG average) with 7 TD, 2 INT & he took 4 sacks.
o 2024: Bucs started off 3-1 in their first 4 games (our only loss was to the Broncos who pummeled us 26-7). In those 4 games, Baker was 91-of-129 (70.5%) for 984 yds (246 YPG average) with 8 TD, 2 INT & he took 15 sacks.
o 2025: Bucs started off 3-1 in their first 4 games (our only loss was to the Eagles who snuck by us 31-25). In those 4 games, Baker is 83-of-139 (59.7%) for 904 yds (226 YPG average) with 8 TD, 1 INT & he’s taken 8 sacks this year.
In 2023 Baker had Evans AND Godwin available for all 4 games. In 2024 Baker had Evans AND Godwin available for all 4 games.
In 2025 Baker has had Evans available for 3 games & Godwin available for only 1 game. HUGE difference in availability. Despite the 10% lower pass completion rate, Baker’s STILL thrown for 8 TDs & over 900 yds in our first 4 games. He’s also only thrown 1 INT, and BTW has THREE 4th qtr comebacks to his credit. All that even though our OLine has been in turmoil, his top 2 WRs only have 50% availability, and our running game hasn’t been clicking for him yet like it did last season.
Bucs are 3-1 right now BECAUSE OF Baker Mayfield, not IN SPITE OF him.
September 29th, 2025 at 9:54 am
We lost a good coach in Coen. So far he’s doing outstanding with the Jags. Big loss to overcome. It would help Grizz if we didn’t have so many key injuries. We lost the game in the first half, so I don’t care the Buc defense rebounded in the 2nd half. Philly sat on the lead, and it worked. First half it was the same, same old. Losing contain on a moblle QB for big plays. Little pass rush, soft over the middle, bad STs giving up points. Most annoying, this team preaches fast starts, and continuely comes out flat. Seems Bowles is not getting his message across.
September 29th, 2025 at 10:07 am
View from 132. Hurts was 0-8 in the second half. His offense was held to negative yardage. That is the epitome of choking. I’ve Hurts choke before. I’ve seen him give up. Just because he’s won a championship doesn’t mean he’s got the metal Mayfield has. I know that. Mayfield knows that. And Hurts knows it too. And yesterday’s loss doesn’t do anything to change that. And it’s not gonna change the fact that we’re coming out of the NFC as the one seed. Because we’re still the best team in this league. I’ll decide who the best QB in the league is after we meet the Bills in the Super Bowl this year.
September 29th, 2025 at 10:16 am
“Terrible caveat, with all of our offensive problems you pivot to the side of the ball that saw the field for the first time AFTER the offense squandered the opening drive, that led to the blocked punt, just for our offense to piss away it’s 2nd drive?”
the eagles offense scored 2 TDs and a field goal in the first half besides the blocked punt. even without the blocked punt the defense, playing half a game, put the bucs in a hole 24-6
the offense was pathetic yesterday, no doubt, but they didnt allow the eagles to score, the defense did.
September 29th, 2025 at 10:19 am
Mayfield is having a good season and is a winning QB and leader. He is however not being efficient enough and his confidence in the pocket has been shaken by an offseason line that hasn’t given him a clear view of the field. The interception was a panicking throw. He was running for his life and didn’t see that Godwin was double covered and his pass was a floater, easy interception.
I’m not seeing the same routes being run by wide receivers. No pick routes, sideline throws or seam routes. Eagles zones were very close to LOS and mostly throws were into the middle or wide receiver screens. Where are the shots downfield in the first half. You can’t just have 3 receivers out on routes, get Culp or Otton some more targets. Offense needs to be jump started with quick starts.
All this punting in first half of games isn’t a recipe to beat good teams like Eagles, Rams, Lions and 49ers.
Offense has to score more in first half of games to make teams respect passing game and then run game will open up.
September 29th, 2025 at 10:35 am
The guy is middle of the pack. He gets AlOT of garbage time yards and is overrated. He tried hard and had charisma. But he is not a guy to lead a team to 13-14 wins, a conference title game and finish top 5 in the MVP voting. He just not. Some QBs do all 3 in one season, multiple times. Can he just do ONE. Even Sam.Darnold led a team to 14 wins last season on a tough division..Committing to. Baker is a commitment to mediocroty. 8-10 wins, e ery fee years a wild card won..Whoopty doo!!! Eventually the front office will have to make a business decision..it is lunacy expecting a guy in his 30s who has been a starter since he was a rookie to achieve things he never had.
September 29th, 2025 at 10:50 am
Todd fears the deep ball over the top. That’s why his preference is softer coverage. This may change with Morrison …
September 29th, 2025 at 10:51 am
“Todd fears the deep ball over the top. That’s why his preference is softer coverage.“
Literally defensive back 101, is don’t get beat deep, it’s not exclusive to Bowles you just don’t know ball lol
September 29th, 2025 at 10:54 am
Baker just is not a SB, 14 game winning, top 5 in MVP voting type QB. He’s not a kid anymore. He’s already been on twice the amount of teams but if you think he can emulate Matt Stafford career trajectory, hat’s off. I think it’s more likely he’s a guy here for 4-5 years and the team will be modestly successful because it’s the weakest division in football every year.. For a team.that had AlOT of success in 2020 and 2021, why have we lowered the bar so much?
September 29th, 2025 at 11:07 am
So many of of Baker’s throws are into tight windows. I’m not sure why, whether that is scheme, lack of separation or bad protection so far this year. So I’m not surprised he attempted that throw to Godwin that got tipped and subsequently picked.
As far as the fumbles, the most recent one he was trying to avoid the rush and the ball was kicked out of his grasp. Again, 13 fumbles last year but only 2 lost. 3 this year, none lost. So we should give him kudos for his awareness to make those recoveries.
September 29th, 2025 at 11:35 am
View from 132 Says:
September 29th, 2025 at 8:51 am
He choked. If he gets all the love for a comeback, he should get the blame for that boneheaded INT.
**************************************************************
BINGO!!!!!!
bakers poor decision cost us the game….
but TOs in general hurt us…
GO BUCS!!!!
September 29th, 2025 at 11:52 am
Absolutely agree, Joe.
It was a killer for we fans too, so much stress.
September 29th, 2025 at 12:26 pm
Erickson Cobb is carrying a Cobb? Were you carrying that Cobb, Erickson?
September 29th, 2025 at 12:49 pm
bad throw that he would like to have back but what about threading the needle between 2 defenders to emeka. he was put in a position of having to go for it going down big early due to playing a better prepared team
September 29th, 2025 at 2:24 pm
It won’t be long and AI will be able to provide Joe with a short intelligent test that all of us will be required to use to log in to JBF. Most of you will be denied and we will no longer have to endure your incredibly moronic comments.
Right Cobb, View 132, Waterboy?
September 29th, 2025 at 2:30 pm
Baker and the offense will be fine. At some point the line will get healthy and Baker will be able to stop running for his life and concentrate on passing like last year. He played better than Stafford, Mahomes and Prescott when they played the Eagles. They all threw an interception except Prescott but Prescott didnt throw any touchdowns. When you have a team that has an offense and defense that are both ranked in the top 5 it is darn hard to play them. No one has beaten them in a while but if we would have caught a few critical passes and made a few less mistakes we would have beaten them. We are DARN GOOD!!! We just need to catch the critical passes and quit with the mistakes. They will get it straight.
September 29th, 2025 at 2:30 pm
@Todd, The 2018 draft pick the Bills used to select Josh Allen came from the Bucs in a trade. The Bucs very realistically could have chosen Allen. We had Jameis at the time. We instead traded down and selected Vita Via. Interestingly, that was also the year Baker was drafted #1.
September 29th, 2025 at 2:43 pm
Baker’s completion percentage is a definite reflection of having a patchwork offensive line and WR room. Give this cat the team he started with in the summer and we are talking a different stat line. He will only get better as the gears get greased, the first time play caller gets his sea legs about him, the o line gets healthier, and we get Mike and McMillan back.
September 29th, 2025 at 2:54 pm
we miss Coen, he has a great offense… Grizz may one day but he’sa rookie and we’re learning with him and a decimated o line… can’t wait to see this offense with big 4 all in there!! evans, cg, ee and j mac
September 29th, 2025 at 3:08 pm
Cobb and view 132, you just write off the fact of what Baker did the first 3 games against a #3 and #5 ranked defenses so easily. He does something only 3 others have done in the history of the NFL but he can’t win a superbowl. You guys are the joke of jokes. You either know nothing about football or you hate our quarterback and to be honest who really cares. You wouldn’t know talent if it slapped you in broad daylight. You don’t have a clue but I’ll tell you anyway, it is darn hard to perform at that level of the first 3 games. There is the inevitable slow down. Its biology 101. But again, obviously you know nothing about this. Keep talking and when you are proven wrong as you haters always are we will all have a good laugh at your expense. It really is amazing how dumb you people are. And just so you know Cobb, Baker will play here for a long time because the boys that know, and thats not you thank goodness, know Baker is a top 5 quarterback and we are very lucky to have him here. One more thing the reason Mahomes isn’t playing as good as he always has is due to him having an OL that is ranked #20. He has always had a top 5 line. Baker has had a worse ranked line than that this whole season due to injuries. But yet he just keeps tearing those defenses up. An OL is EVERYTHING to the success of the QB. You boys don’t have a clue.
September 29th, 2025 at 4:43 pm
If I have to read any more Coen crap, tell you what: Go see a Jags game. Then report it accurately. I like the Jags better than Miami. I also went to every Dolphin home game in the 1969 season. They played in the Orange Bowl. George Wilson was the coach. I lived with my grandparents and finished my senior HS year. My granddad got free tix to promote Miami as a NFL team. Believe me, Miami has always been promoted as the #1 NFL team.