Baker Mayfield’s Heart May Be His Worst Enemy
April 9th, 2026
Bucs QB Baker Mayfield.
If you clip a bird’s wings, you’re basically left with a feathered squirrel.
That’s the balancing act the Bucs and quarterback Baker Mayfield have to navigate each year.
There is no quarterback in the NFL with better intangibles than Mayfield. No quarterback has more heart. No quarterback has more guts. And no quarterback plays with the passion of a linebacker better than Mayfield.
But that’s also Mayfield’s kryptonite. Playing with that devil-may-care mentality puts Mayfield in harm’s way. And as Bucco Bruce Arians likes to say, in the NFL, harm will find you.
But the flip side is, if Mayfield isn’t Mayfield, he’s no longer the dangerous quarterback he is. Mayfield is at his best when he puts the team on his back and lays it all on the line, just to get a first down, forget a touchdown.
After former Bucs linebacker Lavonte David finally spoke the truth out loud that everyone seemed to believe, David said injuries really messed up Mayfield in the second half of the season.
And with Mayfield being a shell of himself, the Bucs lost seven of their final nine games and missed the playoffs.
The creator, curator and overall guru of Pro Football Talk, the great Mike Florio, heard David’s words and said on a recent edition of PFT Live, seen weekday mornings on NBC Sports Network, that Mayfield may drag the Bucs down if he doesn’t start avoiding hits.
“I’m a big advocate of a quarterback’s obligation to keep himself healthy,” Florio said. “Baker Mayfield does not keep himself healthy. He doesn’t miss games, though.
“He started every game last year. He was only listed as questionable twice. I went through the week-by-week injury reports after I saw those quotes from Lavonte David. He had a bunch of injuries, a bunch of different body parts showed up.
“Yeah, he was questionable twice, and never missed a start. He refuses to. I think it became a problem in his last year in Cleveland. Because there’s a point where it’s impairing your performance because you’re playing hurt.”
Florio said a toned-down, yet still effective Mayfield being on the field is a whole lot better than a beat-up, ineffective Mayfield being on the field.
And Florio added until Mayfield can force himself to be more careful, the Bucs will always dance on the high wire late in the season hoping Mayfield is healthy enough to be effective.
“Better to just be healthy,” Florio said. “It’s better to just be healthy. You’ve got to find a way to avoid taking those hits, and his toughness becomes a potential liability if it affects his performance.
“And I think that’s what the Buccaneers are struggling with, because [when Mayfield was] healthy early in the year, lights out, like Lavonte said. Later in the year, when he’s struggling to get to the finish line and parts have fallen off and he refuses to take a game off and let the backup play [hurt the Bucs].
“You know, at some point, the starter is sufficiently impaired by injury that it’s better to go with somebody who’s 100 percent and let him play. But I think that’s part of the overall Baker Mayfield experience; it is a part of what makes him great.
“It’s greatness to a fault. It’s stubbornness to a fault. It’s commitment to his craft to a fault because he keeps playing when he shouldn’t be playing because of all the different injuries that he has, and those are just the ones we know about.”
Joe absolutely gets where Florio is coming from. And Joe has stated several times in the past that the Bucs should have sat Mayfield for a game or two to get him healthy. Even if Mayfield balked, someone should have been the adult in the room.
That’s on the coaches.
But here is the deal: Would the Bucs, with all of their injuries, an offensive line that was riddled with injuries, injuries to Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, and their No. 1 running back getting beat up and missing time, would the Bucs have jumped out to a 6-2 record if Mayfield played conservatively?
No way. So yeah, the Bucs missed the playoffs last year, in part, because Mayfield was so beat up and playing far less than 100 percent.
Problem is, if Mayfield was neutered, no way the Bucs would have been in the playoff hunt to begin with.
And that’s the double-edged sword you get with Mayfield. You get the highest of highs and, if he is hurt, a fair share of lows, too.
April 9th, 2026 at 5:09 am
So get a better backup. But then that creates lots of other problems. There’s a subtext here Jose that I don’t think you realized. At least it seems to me there is if you think about all the implications.
April 9th, 2026 at 5:10 am
Prediction :
Mayfield and Godwin on IR by November – no playoffs again – Licht Bowles Glazers have a ready-made excuse for mediocrity – Licht and Bowles safe for yet another year – Glazers roll out Raise the Flags the Sequel to keep the plebs happy and engaged – same old Bucs in 2027 on the march to another Lost Decade – Go Bucs !
April 9th, 2026 at 5:11 am
Protect him and he will rarely ever need to take a real hit. He can run only when there’s an opening instead of trying to avoid a sack.
April 9th, 2026 at 5:18 am
Also with Browning you can be sure they will do this. Browning is a pretty good quarterback.
April 9th, 2026 at 5:19 am
oh and I forgot the Deshaun-Watson-size extension for Baker that puts the team in salary cap hell for the next several years of the Lost Decade in which Bucs fans pray every week for Baker as they did for Tua in Miami
April 9th, 2026 at 6:07 am
Stpetatt is right. Give him protection and pay him.
April 9th, 2026 at 6:19 am
What a piece of crap to say Mayfield and Godwin on IR by November. Same old Bucs in 2027 on the march to another lost decade. Get-Rid-of-Licht. You are one of many fans that wouldn’t know a gift horse if it hit you in the mouth. This team has faced alot of criticism. Our offense was so hamstrung by injuries last season and folks like you, and Joe, gonna put that on Baker’s shoulders? Fair enough. QB has one job, that’s to win games. So I’m thinking Baker knows that, and we’re all going to find out just what kind of QB Tampa Bay has. I already know. He’s one of the best QBs in the league. If we support Baker with an average defense and above average special teams play, and we can field even an average offensive line, then we won’t be spending next offseason looking for a scapegoat.
April 9th, 2026 at 6:19 am
Sounds good to me! And grazie!
April 9th, 2026 at 6:33 am
Unless I missed something on the Org chart, Bakers not responsible for setting the starters for a game.
Baker is stubborn- so let’s blame him.
Baker has heart and is not a quitter – but let’s blame him.
For goodness sake, the decision to start Baker who is obviously injured is 100% on the Head Coach and I would go as far to suggest it’s coaching malpractice to do what Bowles did last year.
April 9th, 2026 at 6:40 am
“If you clip a bird’s wings, you’re basically left with a feathered squirrel.” Huh?
April 9th, 2026 at 6:52 am
Protection isn’t Baker Mayfield problem
The big hits he takes happens when he leave the pocket
He ran for 15 yards against the Houston Texans, instead of sliding
He tried to bulldozer Will Anderson, and he took a humongous shot
He could barely get up afterwards
April 9th, 2026 at 7:03 am
Joe … ‘So yeah, the Bucs missed the playoffs last year, in part, because Mayfield was so beat up and playing far less than 100 percent.’
Hmmm, kinda sounds like you’re using injuries as an excuse Joe. And we all know that’s not allowed; we’ve read it many times on JoeBucsFan.
However, extensive injuries to key players (like QB?) can be a REASON for losing IF the team doesn’t have suitable DEPTH to replace that injured player IMO. We all know that Baker’s stubborn, and he’s not willingly coming off the field unless he literally can’t walk. But that’s when the HC & OC & team medical folks need to say ‘Sorry Baker, enough is enough; sit down’.
Teddy Bridgewater wasn’t exactly a ‘bridge over troubled waters’ last season like a good backup QB should be. But allowing Baker to play injured like he did isn’t the solution either, like we’ve now seen (in both Cleveland & Tampa Bay). I wouldn’t hesitate to plug in Jake Browning though if a similar situation evolves this season. With a solid TEAM around him, I think Jake could keep us in the fight.
April 9th, 2026 at 7:22 am
Puff piece for the over priced extension coming, Baker has 1 great year surrounded by the rest of his mediocre career, not hating, just saying he has been pretty good since he has become a Buc, but to talk about him like he’s as good as Josh Allen Lamar Burrow Herbert Dak Goff Stafford Maye Darnold Mahomes Hurts Jayden is ludicrous, he’s in the Kyler Geno Smith Derek Carr Kirk Cousins Daniel Jones type category
April 9th, 2026 at 7:24 am
The Bucs coaches need to sit him. If they would of sat him in the second half of the year, he could of came back strong at the end of the season. We win the division. We might of lost the games with a back-up but we still lost the games with a injured Baker.
April 9th, 2026 at 7:30 am
I disagree. Baker is firmly a tier 1 quarterback and fits right in with that group. After all, the past 3 years he has the most TD’s, right? His stats definitely hold up since he’s been here. Everybody sucks with Cleveland. And if our O-line stays healthy I think Baker may break his own records this year. He is a franchise Pro-Bowl quarterback. I’d rather have him than all your tier 1 QB’s other than Allen, Lamar, Burrow. (Stafford too old).
April 9th, 2026 at 7:37 am
Predicting injuries in April? Nice one.
April 9th, 2026 at 7:44 am
Heart? Joe, you misspelled ego. How can you have heart and be a team guy first when you “play injured” and play at a low level AND help your team lose? Baker isnt a team first guy, if he was, he would sit himself down for a few games to come back healthy and hopefully play better. But Baker doesn’t want to sit because he’s afraid he’ll lose his job.
Joe is saying the loud part out loud, if Baker can’t play like a LB or RB then he can’t play QB. Which means if he cant run, hes ineffective. Hes such a great QB that if he can’t run, the offense doesn’t have a chance. Pathetic. Thats why in the playoffs and late in the season he falls short (thats not a height joke). He can’t play from the pocket and hes not a dynamic running QB like Allen, Jackson and Newton. Defenses won’t let Baker run around in single elimination games.
Baker won’t sit himself when he’s “hurt”, Bowles won’t either and some people still think none of this has anything to do with Mike leaving. This team doesn’t want to win anything significant, it’s all about friends and family having jobs and playing games. As long as Baker is here this team will continue to lose when it matters most.
You’re only as good as your last season in professional sports, not what you did 2-3 years ago. You’re on drugs if you think any owner is paying $200+ million for an injury prone, inaccurate 30+ y/o QB.