Baker Mayfield Elevates Teammates
July 13th, 2025
Raises teammates’ games.
Now this is an interesting observation Joe had never really thought of.
Yesterday Joe genuinely wondered if Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield is underrated. Joe based this on the fact no quarterback has thrown more touchdown passes the past two seasons.
If someone mentioned Pat Mahomes, you’d shrug your shoulders. If Josh Allen did this, the reaction would probably be the same. If Saint Lamar Jackson did this, BSPN would go so bananas with wall-to-wall coverage. It would be so big you wouldn’t realize there’s this thing untold dozens of people care about called the women’s non-basketball association.
But Mayfield? Nah, he’s a scrub.
Armed with this same information, Tyler Sullivan of CBS made a case that Mayfield is able to raise his teammates’ production.
The Buccaneers were able to win the NFC South even after losing Chris Godwin midway through the season and also with Mike Evans missing some time due to injury. That’s a credit to Mayfield, who threw for a career-high 41 passing touchdowns this season on top of 4,500 yards passing. Mayfield got that done by helping elevate the likes of Cade Otton, Bucky Irving and Jalen McMillan.
Well, let’s think about this for a moment: Mike Evans produces year in and year out no matter who is throwing him the ball. Chris Godwin? He had his best seven-game stretch of his career with Mayfield.
When Evans and Godwin were both out, Cade Otton had his best production since the Bucs drafted him in 2022.
Rachaad White is a formidable passing target. Bucky Irving became a dangerous runner (in part, because of Mayfield’s downfield blocking). Yeah, Joe is being a bit sarcastic there.
But Sullivan might be onto something. A lot of Bucs have had some if not all of their best games while Mayfield is under center.
That’s a sign of a damn good quarterback: He makes his teammates better.
July 13th, 2025 at 12:35 am
What he did when Godwin and Evans were both out was very impressive. He may be becoming one of those QBs that makes his WRs better, rather than vice versa. Only the elite QBs do that.
July 13th, 2025 at 1:12 am
Baker leads by example. Is not afraid to block for his RBs – willing to put his shoulder down and try to run defenders over – Alstott style, to gain that 1st down….
He’s a real football player. And he’s “one of the guys” in the most genuine of ways….
A fantastic leader!
The Bucs are fortunate Mayfield was not wanted as a starter elsewhere in 2023 – allowing us to sign him for dirt cheap that 1st year and allowing Baker to find a true “home” and re-claim his status as a ‘franchise Quarterback’….
July 13th, 2025 at 1:42 am
Uh oh, someone said elite!!! 😱
Baker elevating his teammates is nothing new. He has been doing it his whole career. It’s how he took Cleveland from 0-16 to “really” beating KC in 2020. How did we go from being predicted by all the experts after Tom left to win 4 games to winning 10 games? It is what elite quarterbacks do. Oops Im sorry, I said elite too. I imagine that word will be used more and more concerning Baker.
July 13th, 2025 at 2:19 am
I agree totally . This is 1 of Bakes best attributes. He is def capable of getting us to a SB.
July 13th, 2025 at 6:53 am
Indeed, Baker in this offense is very good. He leads by example. However, I’d like to see him get more animated during the few times when the offense is struggling. A mixture of encouragement and kicking butt on the sideline or huddle would be good during those rare bad times.
July 13th, 2025 at 7:28 am
I am very excited to see what we do with Emeka Egbuka early in the season. He’s a MAJOR talent.
July 13th, 2025 at 7:29 am
“He makes his teammates better.” Back when the NBA was still a thing, the days of Magic, Bird, Jordan, Barkley, Ewing et al; making teammates better was a large part of the “is he a great player?” measuring stick. Hell yea Baker makes teammates better! He is a great player.
July 13th, 2025 at 7:40 am
I wonder if Mayfield is sitting with his morning coffee and reading JBF? That would be cool! Baker, if you’re reading this, great job!
July 13th, 2025 at 8:17 am
Pfft, 61 QBR
July 13th, 2025 at 8:51 am
This was a great observation JJoes.
“That’s a sign of a damn good quarterback: He makes his teammates better.”
And that is a tremendous talent to possess. He does it in the obvious ways…completing passes with Nick Bosa hanging on him…lowering his head in an attempt to truck a DB…and maybe the most amazing play of his career the downfield block for Bucky. That SHOULD be legendary. It wasn’t a QB simply taking an opportunity to throw his body in the way in an attempt to extend a play, Baker…I would have linked that play but links are a no no.
Seriously! I know you’ve seen it a bunch but stop right now and go to youtube and view it again. It NEVER ceases to amaze.
The ball was at the freaking 12 and when Bucky breaks loose there is just one other Buc uni running up the field and for about 10 yards matching his speed before stopping to throw a block that added another ten or so yards to the run.
Throughout my sports fanship I’ve heard of guys in various sports not just NFL winning “ugly” as opposed to “stylishly.
The Bucs have gone from the most stylish QB…the GOAT…to a guy who knows how to get dirty and win ugly. I think all of us born on the wrong side of the tracks in “ugly” situations just LOVE watching this guy do his thing.
July 13th, 2025 at 9:14 am
When Tampa acquired Baker I was completely dumbfounded,, I have ate a lot of crow, Baker is a baller and a warrior. Kudos to Baker,stay healthy.
July 13th, 2025 at 9:17 am
Just so EVERYONE knows, ESPN’S QBR that some people love to point out, isn’t even accepted by the NFL. The reason being, no one knows what all is used to come up with the numbers they come up with. It is a proprietary metric and they REFUSE to tell the NFL their little secret. So the NFL is totally happy to keep using their very own passer rating that Baker has performed better on than anyone in the history of the playoff system, better than anyone. And Baker is just arriving at his prime…😉
July 13th, 2025 at 9:28 am
Sorry Joe, I’m not buying it, yes he threw for a lot of yards, but that is negated when you lose games you should not have lost and struggle to win in the weakest division in the nfl , when you can’t even score a touchdown against the weakest team in that division, when you lead the league in interceptions and fumbles, and are directly responsible for getting the team knocked out of the playoffs two years in a row , and yes , it is a team sport , but , if you are going to take the credit for elevating your teammates play when they win , it’s only fair for you to have to take the blame for the teams failures when they lose , so far IMHO, it’s been pretty much a wash.
July 13th, 2025 at 9:35 am
This team makes him better because if that was true he would still be with the Rams or the Panthers. And it’s ok to me that he has everything on offense including coaches that’s not asking him to carry the team. But he have to stop turning over the ball in cruiser moments of the game that’s his problem. If he’s all what y’all say he is then I want to see him lead us to a conference championship game this year. Then you can say that but until then he’s another Tony Romo or Alex Smith because they did the same thing Baker Mayfield is doing now and actually the Chiefs were winning 12 and 13 games with Alex Smith and Baker haven’t done that yet either. This is a good team and when the game is on the line and the ball is in his hands to either close it out or win it he has to come threw some times and I’m not talking about against teams that’s playing for draft position. Baker Mayfield is 1-7 in prime time games that’s not a good.
July 13th, 2025 at 11:19 am
Mayfield has back to back career years……..crickets from national media.
If Mayfield regresses slightly………..it’ll be a major news story.
July 13th, 2025 at 1:02 pm
What a difference stability in the organization has made for Baker.
Baker is delivering. Yes, he threw the pick against Detroit. Yes, he did not execute the sweep against the Redskins. Those stand out. But can’t forget the plays me made to get first downs and win games to get there.
2025. 2026 and 2027. This is the SB window.
July 13th, 2025 at 2:19 pm
Brady once threw 3 INTs in one game. (It might have been in GB). Our defense had his back, and those interceptions did not keep us from winning that game.
July 13th, 2025 at 4:22 pm
Oneilbuc,
Don’t you have anything else to do? Davyboy has it right that Baker elevated Browns receivers on a team that was 1-31 before his arrival. You don’t know the first thing about Mayfield and you are too blind (that’s being charitable) to see what an overwhelming majority of Bucs fans see about their QB. The last two years in Tampa are nothing new for Mayfield. You ought to examine his college career at Oklahoma and the years in Cleveland when he played without being injured.
July 13th, 2025 at 5:00 pm
That is correct cricket baker and we went on to win the Super Bowl that year. He ended up with a 73 qb rating in that game and a qbr of 69 which I don’t understand how it could have been that high in that game which proves the questionable nature of that metric. As for oneilbuc you sir are nothing more than a sophist!
July 13th, 2025 at 5:15 pm
Gipper. You don’t know nothing about the bucs you are a Browns fan. And Baker Mayfield couldn’t win with that team and they had the best o line with 2 good runningbacks and a good defense and still couldn’t lead the team to a conference championship game. I don’t care what none of you Baker fan boys say he has to win important games when the games are in his hands to either close them out or win them he haven’t proven he can do that and that’s a fact .
July 13th, 2025 at 5:20 pm
In 2024, Patrick Mahomes threw for a superbowl quaterback rating of 11.4, 11.4. No wonder they lost to the Eagles who we beat earlier in the same year.
July 13th, 2025 at 5:23 pm
Oscar.It doesn’t matter we won a Superbowl with Brady and we haven’t dominated a trash division are gotten to a conference championship game when the games were put in his hands to win . Baker Mayfield is a good quarterback but he haven’t proven he can get to a conference championship game. Dak is a good quarterback but can’t win the big games, Alex Smith wasn’t a bad quarterback and he couldn’t win the big games. Romo was a good quarterback and he couldn’t win big games and I’m talking about playoffs games. . So call me what you want Baker fan boy until he does he’s a Alex Smith, Tony Romo and Dak. The only pass I will give Baker is if the game end up playing out like the Texans game other than that it’s NFC Championship or bust.
July 13th, 2025 at 5:27 pm
Baker Mayfield is 1-7 in prime time games he’s Kurk Cousin also when it comes to prime time games. Baker Mayfield has everything on offense so it’s easy to put good stats. Last season the defense was not as bad as people say they were if you watched the games . In the playoffs against Washington the defense played good and that game came down to who had the better quarterback and Washington had the better quarterback and that’s why they beat us .
July 13th, 2025 at 5:50 pm
You know Onei you just totally ignore facts. You said Baker couldn’t win with the Browns, wow. What do you call, 2020 Chiefs vs. Cleveland game? Baker throws the winning TD. The Chiefs safety targeted the Browns receiver with the crown of his helmet right on his head causing a fumble. The refs conveniently acted like they didn’t know what targeting looked like on that day and stole the victory from the Browns. Everybody else knew, but the refs forgot. Is that what you call Baker couldn’t win with the Browns?? The refs had to “get involved” to secure the win for the Chiefs. You do realize it should have been the Browns in the superbowl that year, right? You do realize that NO ONE, other than BM6, has ever took a team that was 0-16 3 years later to the superbowl, right? You said Baker couldn’t win with the Browns 😂 🤣 😂 😆
July 13th, 2025 at 5:58 pm
Ignoring facts again Onei. The reason we lost was due to Dan Quinn having a better game plan, period. Baker is such a better qb Quinn knew he better keep the ball out of his hands. Daniels had the ball in his hands the whole game and barely won. If Baker would have had his hands on the ball as much as Daniels we would have won 75-23.
July 13th, 2025 at 6:07 pm
Being a bit of a golf fan I took a little look at the American Century Golf event at Lake Tahoe today. And there was Baker, paired up with the Kelce brothers. He was elevating Travis Kelce’s beer shooting game. Then some fans brought him a beer and he raced a cold one with them too! He was elevating the fans game! He was elevating everyone’s game. Sadly his golf sucked.
July 13th, 2025 at 6:34 pm
I take it back oneilbuc, you are not a sophist. A sophist argues a point with clever but fallacious arguments. You do qualify on the fallacious part but come up short on the clever part.
You say it doesn’t matter that Brady threw 3 picks in that game against the Packers and the defense shut them down all 3 times because he won a Superbowl. If that defense was on the field against the Commanders last season in the playoffs the outcome would have been different.
By your twisted logic MarkRypien, Doug Williams, Brad Johnson and Joe Theisman were all better than Dan Marino because they all won Superbowls and Marino did not.
July 13th, 2025 at 6:45 pm
Maybe you are clever Onei! I think you may just be messin with us with your ridiculous arguments to get into our heads. And it seems to be working. You are the sly one!
July 13th, 2025 at 8:40 pm
Oneilbuc,
Not going to argue with you until you can express rational thoughts and write simple declarative sentences. Here is an example: Baker Mayfield is a great NFL quarterback. You dig, man?
July 13th, 2025 at 9:16 pm
@Oscar and Gipper
O’Neill is an ardent fan! Fan is short of course for fanatic. ONeil was JW’s biggest fanboy here. I’m not really sure why, perhaps it’s an FSU connection?
His Jameis love has blinded him to any rational thought about the QB position.
He’ butt hurt his beloved Bucs had the temerity to dump his even more beloved Fameis Jameis.
He not an actual troll. But if you want to get him really going…am I an arsehole or what? LMAO Just start pointing out how much better Baker is than JW. He’ll go nuckin futs.