Baker Mayfield Said He Had To Pump The Brakes For Bucs’ PR People
February 7th, 2026
Interesting behind-the-scenes nugget from Baker Mayfield.
The Bucs’ franchise quarterback was busy at the Super Bowl this week (not Radio Row) pimping Sonic burgers and fries.
(Tom Brady selling out and pushing food he wouldn’t eat comes to mind — Pizza Hut and Subway — though Joe imagines Mayfield would actually eat fast food occasionally.)
During his day as a pitchman, Mayfield sat down with chief NFL writer Rob Maadi of Associated Press.
Maadi mentioned to Mayfield about having a great start to this season, high expectations and being an early MVP candidate. He asked Mayfield how he processed that.
Mayfield took his answer in an interesting direction.
“I mean, it’s a long year,” Mayfield said. “I told our PR people in the building when they were asking me, ‘Hey, we’re going to start this campaign.’ I’m like, ‘Guys, it’s like Week 5, Week 6, like this is a long year. We haven’t even started to play meaningful football.’
“For me, you look back on the year and figure out where it went wrong. Obviously, the easy thing to do is to point at injuries because when you have different guys go in there you have no continuity. But it’s a long season, so you try and go back to the tape and things are going to happen in games. It comes down to little details when you go back and look at it.”
Joe doesn’t know who Mayfield referred to when referencing “PR people.” Hopefully, it wasn’t whomever approved that miserable Siege the Day campaign or the 2014 uniform change, or the folks in charge of helping Lavonte David get to a Pro Bowl over the years.
Regardless, Mayfield’s comment offers a little glimpse into how while coaches and players try to operate one day/week at a time, there often is pressure on them internally to think otherwise.
February 7th, 2026 at 2:22 pm
He knew. That team was smoke and mirrors the first 5 games. But we all got drunk off of the close games.
We were lied to by Licht and Bowles. I guess their jobs are to sell tickets and expensive hotdogs.
February 7th, 2026 at 2:40 pm
Sonic?? Man, their food is really, really bad.
Like – how do they stay in business? – bad…..
I guess when you are being paid 6 or 7 figures just to pitch something – you set aside your personal preferences and pretend like the stuff you are pitching is actually worth eating….
For numerous reasons, its a shame Baker wound up playing so unevenly last year. I think a 3rd very good to great year in a row would have cemented the idea in everyone’s mind that Mayfield is a top QB. Now there are just more questions…. Was it Baker’s injuries? OL, WR and RB injuries?? Scheme??? Was he pressing too much amidst all those issues? – Yes – Yes – Yes and Yes……..
I’ve thought it would be cool for Progressive to revive the “At Home with Baker Mayfield” series of advertisements – with a Pirate theme of course…. but that (and other ‘good’ pitch man opportunities) are not going to be forthcoming unless and until Baker removes all doubt that he is a franchise Quarterback.
February 7th, 2026 at 2:54 pm
He’s talking about all the MVP talk early in the season. Baker knew our (his) early success was fools gold.
I fully expect Zac to be the missing link. Better than Coen and as a bonus is he’s not a chinless weasel 👍🏼
February 7th, 2026 at 3:23 pm
Too bad the players and coaches all failed Todd. His genius was wasted. Thankfully, the coaching problems have all been fired.
February 7th, 2026 at 5:11 pm
ModHairKen … ‘We were lied to by Licht and Bowles.’
Just out of curiosity Ken, I what way did they lie to us?