Baker Mayfield’s Week 2 Passing Chart
September 23rd, 2026
Where was he throwing?
On Sunday, when the Bucs host the Vikings in a game that very well could decide if the Bucs are still in the hunt for a playoff berth or will be watching the playoffs from a beach bar in the DR, Joe hopes KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles does something unusual.
During pregame warmups, Joe hopes Bowles asks Bucs offensive coordinator Zac Robinson to take a walk with him at The Licht House.
Joe would want Bowles to escort Robinson to the middle of the field near the goal line. Bowles would then put an arm around Robinson like a father would, sharing wisdom with his son as Bowles points toward the goalposts on the far end of the field. Then he would say to Robinson softly, “Zac, the end zone is over there.”
Then Bowles would wave his free arm motioning towards the sidelines and say, “Zac, the end zone is not over there… or there.”
It seems Robinson thinks it’s cool and swift to throw short passes not just behind the line of scrimmage, but five yards behind the line of scrimmage.
Sometimes having Baker Mayfield throwing to a running back just three steps away is exasperating. Mindless!
The Bucs offense currently average 19 points a game (remember, six of the Bucs’ points scored Week 1 was a pick-six by Josiah Trotter). That’s not good.
Robinson needs to wise up and figures out it might be smart of him to use his quality receivers and maybe start throwing more intermediate passes to keep the chains moving. It may lead to more points.
Guys can’t get open? Scheme ’em open, coach; that is why you get paid so much Team Glazer loot.
In the NextGen Stats chart below, you can see the obscene number of times Mayfield threw — flipped? — short passes to his left way behind the line of scrimmage.
Field goals don’t win games; touchdowns do. And last Sunday the Bucs pulled a classic let-the-other-team-hang-around-and-make-a-play-in-the-fourth-quarter-to-win by kicking field goals in the first half.
All the scoring the Bucs had against the Browns in the first half was field goals. Three of them.
Todd Monken couldn’t have asked for a cleaner plate set for him by the Bucs at the dinner table.
September 23rd, 2026 at 4:57 am
Passes 25 yards or more – 1 out of 7…
And there is the major flaw with Baker Mayfield.
Plus 4 turnovers already.
UGLY.
September 23rd, 2026 at 4:57 am
Maybe Todd won’t use his pass rushers to cover receivers this week.
September 23rd, 2026 at 6:02 am
I doubt I’ll watch this week. It might be very ugly.
September 23rd, 2026 at 6:03 am
Baker was not worth the contract before the season. Franchise tag was always an option.
September 23rd, 2026 at 6:11 am
I kept yelling at the TV — “Move the ball forward”. We don’t need WR end-arounds, when we have Bucky. We did this backward stuff last year, especially inside the opponents 5. Good news though, no one will be picking our OC pocket for head coach.
September 23rd, 2026 at 6:34 am
Through our first 8 weeks last year (2025) we were 6-2. Our last 7 games in 2024 we were 6-1. So we were 12-3 our last 7 games of 2023 and our first eight games of 2025.
We closed out 2025 2-7. We’ve opened 2026 0-2. That’s a 2-9 stretch.
What happened? We had 0 turnovers and threw 3 TD passes and lost to Atlanta 28-23. We hung 32 (2 missed conversions) and lost to Buffalo. We had a 28-14 4th quarter lead and lost the 3rd and 28 game. We lost to Cleveland when Baker made the perfect game winning pass which was dropped by an overwhelmed rookie. Easily could have won every other game except Rams. That 2-9 could easily be 6-5.
Anybody writing this team off has a remarkably bad memory. Baker in 3 seasons has had us contending through 17 games all 3 years.
Licht and the Glazers have lots more sense than they’re getting credit for. Baker held this outfit together through the toughest run of offensive injuries I’ve seen a team have in years.
Baker has said this is the best team he has ever played with. I don’t care what PFF says about our OLine. They are looking better by the minute. And I think when Baker says we’re close I’m gonna believe him. He is a truth teller.
I’m listening to you guys talking about the draft and how we will get a high draft pick. After 2 games? The only thing high about that is you guys.
Everyone is about to find out who Baker Mayfield is. And why the brass decided to pay him fairly and make him the face of this franchise.
September 23rd, 2026 at 6:37 am
Our last seven games of 2024 (not 2023).
September 23rd, 2026 at 6:39 am
The Next Gen passing chart looks less like an NFL offense and more like somebody spilled Skittles behind the line of scrimmage.
Apparently “taking a shot” in Tampa now means throwing beyond the sticks.
September 23rd, 2026 at 6:43 am
Just read the article about Baked which is the Banner on ESPN the last 2 days(with video replays) and you will see slants run that for no apparent reason Baked chose not to throw, even though he had great protection?? Why??
September 23rd, 2026 at 6:57 am
Notice the lack of passes to the middle of the field. I don’t think he can see that there are wide-open receivers because he’s so short. I know Sean Payton changed his blocking for Brees and used passing lanes so he could see the receivers—maybe that’s what Baker needs?
September 23rd, 2026 at 7:05 am
I was reading Ben Solak article about Baker Mayfield
He was breaking everything down, and he was spot on
I totally agree with him, his article is 100% accurate about Baker
He said the Bucs are already regretting giving Baker the extension
As l have always said, this offense is built for an accurate pocket passer
The WRs, TEs, RBs, OLine we have is a solid group
We need a QB with pocket awareness, quick release, accurate, can make any throw
We don’t need a wannabe Michael Vick running this offense
We need that pocket passer aka TB12
September 23rd, 2026 at 7:18 am
I said of the 28-23 game with 0 turnovers and 3 TD runs it was the Falcons. I meant the Patriots. Everyone remembers the game where the defense stood a round and let them bust off 4 touchdowns of over 60 yards?
September 23rd, 2026 at 7:26 am
@ Kenton
What Baker did last season or the season before or whatever means absolutely diddly squat today…
Baker is just really bad right now.
This offense is just really really bad right now.
This offensive line does currently suck whether you like hearing it or not.
1 out of 7 downfield throws is abysmal.
4 turnovers is abysmal.
Do you know what the term “abysmal” means?
It means really really horrifically bad…
September 23rd, 2026 at 7:27 am
Kenton Smith … ‘Easily could have won every other game except Rams. That 2-9 could easily be 6-5.’
Sorry Kenton, but it’s the 2-9 that REALLY count, not the COULDA, WOULDA, SHOULDA. Bad teams are usually bad because they find ways to beat themselves like dropped passes, missed conversions, defensive lapses at the most inorpportune times. Thus far this season it’s been turnovers, sacks & missed passes that could’ve made the difference in the ballgame.
If you go back and relook at the key plays of the first 2 games you’ll see that Baker is NOT AT ALL comfortable in the pocket that his OLine is providing. Pats’ QB Tony Eason many years ago got the reputation for having ‘Happy Feet’ in the pocket, and it ultimately derailed his career. A QB who spends those precious couple of seconds after the ball is snapped NOT keeping his eyes downfield, going through his progressions, won’t be successful at CONSISTENTLY moving the ball down the field via the pass. And I think that’s why Baker is going to his safety valves so much; he’s not keeping his eyes down the field to run through his progressions. Receivers haven’t been widely open from what I’ve seen, but they have been open enough to make a play IF Baker can get them the ball.
That NexGen chart that Joe so graciously included is soooo telling. Within 10 yds of the LOS, Baker is gold. From 10-20 yds of the LOS he’s acceptable. Beyond 20 yds of the LOS he’s a disaster. He seems to have lost all ‘touch’ for hitting deep passes. Jags beat the Browns soundly in their first game largely with deep passes. Bucs tried the same approach, but Baker went 3-of-12 on deep passes for a total of 94 yds. Those incomplete deep passes set us up numerous times for 3rd-and-longs that we didn’t make. And oh ya, one of his deep passes was intercepted, but our defense held the Browns to a FG. Without that FG, Bucs were in a position at the end to kick our own FG and win the ballgame.
September 23rd, 2026 at 7:35 am
Marine Buc and Defense Rules. You guys could absolutely be right. I think you’re dead wrong. That’s why we’re gonna go ahead and play out our schedule.
September 23rd, 2026 at 7:52 am
Seems like the collapse of the IOL explains the lack of passes to the middle. I’m guessing some of that is the OC seeing the problem and calling throws to the outside. I suspect many of the short laterals were Baker dumping it off when plays targeted the middle and that’s where the pressure was coming. As people have pointed out, whatever you think of Baker’s skillset, he doesn’t have the height to pass over interior pressure. This might also explain the play-by-play breakdowns people are referencing about open receivers.
I’m not trying to make excuses for anyone, just figure out what’s going on with the offense. Unfortunately, I don’t have one of those NFL subscriptions with lots of game footage, and I’m not good at reading the play calls, anyway. So, this is and will remain purely speculation, although I’d bet there’s at least something to it.
September 23rd, 2026 at 7:54 am
And DR. We’ve had 5 turnovers and you’re right that is a factor in being 0-2.
The bigger factor is if our defense could have held Cleveland to 3 instead of 7 – we had a broken play that allowed a third string, clumsy tight end to go twenty yards untouched into the end zone- ON THIRD Down! – for a 4 point lead, if we can make one stop we get to not waste that excellent kickoff return and we kick the field goal to win.
And the sickest thing of all is that we’ve turned the ball over 5 times and our opponents have ravaged our defense in scored 27 points off of those turnovers.
But why should we be able to hold the Browns to 13 points in the second half when it’s easier to loaf around and give up 17 to that inept team in the second half?
September 23rd, 2026 at 8:00 am
“Cleveland games were full of screens where something would go slightly wrong and it would blow up the play. The offensive line wouldn’t toe the line between holding up pass-rushers and letting them through, either forcing too much quick pressure on Mayfield or leaving the receiver stranded against defenders. Linemen and blocking receivers would seemingly fall asleep and end up a step or two late to make their blocks. Mayfield would try to complete screens that were horribly blown up before he even decided to release the pass. I’ve never seen an offense in which the receiver was drawing dead to the nearest defender before he even caught the screen more frequently than the 2019 Browns.”
Same stuff since 2019 at the earliest, lol
September 23rd, 2026 at 8:01 am
@ Kenton
More BS excuses and explanations we have ALL heard before.
This team currently sucks.
This team is 0-2.
This team just lost to the Browns.
I do appreciate your never-ending optimism but it couldn’t get any worse at the moment…
September 23rd, 2026 at 8:03 am
We have the talent, but we need a real game plan. Agreed.
September 23rd, 2026 at 8:20 am
My take is bad coaching is the biggest issue. Team hasn’t practiced enough, the schemes are bad (Offense and Defense), players are still soft and give up. I was at the game in the ship side end zone, Baker threw an outside deep pass and Johnson 15 ran inside and not outside. He collided with the defender trying to get outside. Either Baker or Johnson screwed up and to me that’s coaching and communication. A couple plays later he ran inside and caught the deep pass. The schemes and play calling are killing the team and that’s bad coaching. Yes Baker absolutely needs to get his crap straight too but until we get better coaches nothing is changing.
September 23rd, 2026 at 8:25 am
kenton smith
bro you’re delusional lol….
baker has 4 turnovers in 2 games and you wanna talk about defense lol….
stop with the excuses…you’re embarrassing yourself once again
GO BUCS!!!!!
September 23rd, 2026 at 8:26 am
Joe’s- look at Dan Orlovsky’s breakdown of the Bucs defense from Sunday. At one point the Bucs ONLY had 1 corner lined up against 3 WR’s. At this point, I don’t want useless Todd Bowles giving anyone advice until he fixes his issues.
September 23rd, 2026 at 8:27 am
Josh Says:
September 23rd, 2026 at 6:57 am
Notice the lack of passes to the middle of the field. I don’t think he can see that there are wide-open receivers because he’s so short.
BINGO!!!!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
September 23rd, 2026 at 8:34 am
I’d guess the lack of passes to the middle is due to the rapid collapse of the IOL last game. Some of that is the OC seeing the problem and calling passes to the outside. Part of it is Baker dishing off short when the call is to the middle but there’s pressure down the pipe…that would account for that cluster short to the left. Baker can often find passing gaps in the middle but, as people have pointed out, he doesnt have the height to pass over serious pressure up the center.
I’m not sure what’s up with the incomplete long passes. One was a tripped.up receiver, one was a receiver who clearly blew his route, and one was just overthrown. I don’t remember the other misses.
September 23rd, 2026 at 8:35 am
Also, this might explain the play-by-play analysis people are seeing about open receivers. Were those mostly in the middle, does anyone know?
September 23rd, 2026 at 8:44 am
Wow Joey just keeps going out of his way to find excuses for Baker.
I don’t need to see the chart, I watched the game and rewatched. Plenty of plays were drawn up for Baker to hit OPEN WRs down field. He either can’t see the field well (I believe this has been a problem for Baker his entire career), panics in the pocket early (he gets happy feet ALL the time), or just flat out misses throws.
How about putting your arm around Baker and say, this is what an open WR looks like in the NFL, put the ball here.
More blame for everyone but Baker. I agree that there are way too many short passes, but those will work once Baker threatens a defense by consistently hitting open targets down field. Then you get DBs and LBers to respect those throws THEN those short pass to backs will open up.
The amount of excuses for one of the highest paid QBs in the league is bafflingly.
September 23rd, 2026 at 8:49 am
I think its shallow thinking to blame one dude for the crappy outcomes. This is a team sport. And the coaches and players are responsible for this junk.
Bowles… The dude has years of experience scheming defenses. He’d better be coaching Robinson on what the offense can be doing better. He has no excuse to be hands off the O unless its performing well. Lets hear what your doing to improve Todd.
Robinson can have the worlds best game plans, but if Baker can’t see over his line to find the open receiver or doesn’t trust the line to protect him, or doesn’t trust the receivers… Then its not all Robinson. Someones got to execute on the field.
Baker, does he know where his receivers are going to be? Is he studying the opposing defenses enough? Can he trust himself, has he got the yips? Those constantly overthrown deep balls, I mean, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while… not Baker. No passes over the center of the field? Why? Because you can’t see the plays developing to those landmarks?. Baker did great with a TALL Mike Evans. I think he’s just not seeing these guys in traffic.
I don’t believe Godwin and Egbuka are missing their assignments. Maybe Herst or Tez. But Eggy and Godwin have proven they are very savvy receivers. I’m not blaming those two. Are they game planned out by opposing defenses? Sure. But my gut feeling is Baker doesn’t know where to find them. Just an intuition. Is Robinson building horizontal only game plans? I don’t believe that. Maybe more reliance on lateral passing as a safety valve but my guess is aside from a couple plays laterally to slow down aggressive defenses Baker is the one driving laterally because he’s either not seeing over the line or he’s panicking and worried he won’t see once he climbs the pocket.
The line… What the hell has happened to that squad? If its not Baker panicking, then its a disconnect between coaches. This line shouldn’t look so damn bad. Even weak play from the guards doesn’t excuse these breakdowns.
September 23rd, 2026 at 8:55 am
“You are what your record says you are.” Bill Parcells.
September 23rd, 2026 at 8:59 am
Baker’s adot is a little too high. More 5-9 yards passes will help. Quick slants behind fake screens would work wonders.
September 23rd, 2026 at 9:09 am
And the only deep pass he threw well was bcuz he slipped and it threw off his normal off-target deep throw rhythm.
Bucs are looking sad on both sides of the ball right now.
PLAYOFFS?!?? – Dick Vermiel
September 23rd, 2026 at 9:11 am
Baker hurt the team more than he helped it last game. He needs to do better.
September 23rd, 2026 at 9:13 am
“And the sickest thing of all is that we’ve turned the ball over 5 times and our opponents have ravaged our defense in scored 27 points off of those turnovers.
But why should we be able to hold the Browns to 13 points in the second half when it’s easier to loaf around and give up 17 to that inept team in the second half?”
So the defense needs to give us 60 minutes of football, even when the home crowd boos the offense after kicking a FG going into the half only up 3 when the D allowed 6?
LMAOOOO Kenton, it seems like you don’t know how to sequence situational football to find out who’s not complimenting who. Holding any NFL to 6 points in the first 30 minutes is alot better than an offense scoring 9 points in 30 minutes.
Our last FG in the 1st half came off a 4th down stop by our defense and gave our offense the ball at the CLE 34!!!! Took 8 plays to gain 21 yards and eventually kick FG. Your boy, had the task of passing the rock the last 3 plays of that drive & went 1-3 for -2 yards.
Offense ended both halves of this game on the same, exact note. In scoring position, with 7 there for the taking and came away with 3 points total.
September 23rd, 2026 at 9:24 am
The offense will need to score 35 points a game in order to make up for the disastrous scheme on defense that the Mensa member keeps employing despite the results.
It looks like Grizzard was a better OC than Robinson after all.
Bowles probably was so impressed by the 3rd and 28 game that he wanted to bring Robinson onboard.
If anyone needs a talking to it’s Todd. 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
September 23rd, 2026 at 10:08 am
Everyone knew last week exactly what Robinson was going to do. He ran the exact same running play with Gainwell in motion and the handoff to Bucky at least 5 times.
When you constantly throw to guys behind the li e of scrimmage, the defense begins to cheat. Did Robinson exploit that? No! He just kept calling those behind the line plays.
The team is coming apart at the seams. In two weeks.
Smart move by Licht letting the contracts fester. Smart move by Bowles not teaching tackling and not playing the starters together in preseason on fear they may get injured. Well, guess what? They aren’t properly conditioned. They aren’t in rhythm. They aren’t ready.
So six games in, when they are 2-4 and finally in condition and rhythm, they will be so far behind that it will be too late to salvage.
September 23rd, 2026 at 10:09 am
@CosmoKramer – I don’t know if we can say Grizzard was better yet. Baker is a turnover machine, who has this year been unable to hit open passes. Every offense would look shaky with how our starting 155Mil dollar man has played.
September 23rd, 2026 at 10:09 am
For many years, my dad and I used to say “can’t run, can’t stop the run”. Now, it’s “can’t attack the middle, can’t defend the middle”. Absolutely pathetic.
September 23rd, 2026 at 10:23 am
“When you constantly throw to guys behind the li e of scrimmage, the defense begins to cheat. Did Robinson exploit that? No! He just kept calling those behind the line plays”
The deep passes were the attempts at exploitation, the problem is the majority of them were not on the money from relatively clean pockets.
September 23rd, 2026 at 10:29 am
Missed the game last week, but looking at that chart it looks like they actually did take some shots, despite the narrative I’ve heard. When he misses all of them (as shown) I guess that adds further pressure to just get some completions even if they’re short
September 23rd, 2026 at 10:32 am
High front shoulder equals slop for accuracy . Unless it is a hail mary .
September 23rd, 2026 at 11:32 am
Okay, okay! Enough already! Everyone that can’t stop talking about our QBs accuracy?
Did Baker lead the league the first week in completion percentage? YES
Did Baker throw for over 70% in 2024? While throwing for over 4500 yards and over 40 touchdowns? Only the 4th QB in history to pull that off? YES
Was he named the college QB of the Century by Sports Illustrated? YES
Heismann and first pick? YES
It’s a good thing when a team knows its players strengths and plays to those strengths. We’re getting close to being a good team. And somebody tell me all about accurate QBs in history and tell me why their career completion percentage is close to the same for all of them?
September 23rd, 2026 at 11:35 am
Are these dots where the receiver was, or where the ball was? Because most of the game they weren’t in the same vicinity
September 23rd, 2026 at 11:37 am
“Okay, okay! Enough already! Everyone that can’t stop talking about our QBs accuracy?”
Cope/cry harder, if he wasn’t putting this garbage on film with hundreds of thousands of viewers live and getting millions more to re-watch after the fact it wouldn’t be this big a topic of discussion. Fact is, that it is and it’s causing scrutiny that comes with demanding money he’s been paid and is doing his best to prove he’s not worth.
September 23rd, 2026 at 1:45 pm
Bakers’ average time to throw was 3.07 seconds in the Browns game.
Average time to throw for ALL teams is 2.6-2.8
Baker is holding the ball WAY too long.
Ben Solak showed video of Godwin open on slant and Bake did not trigger.
Brian Flores is blitzing about 80% of the time-UH OH.
September 23rd, 2026 at 2:13 pm
Go back and count the number of times Baker got to the top of his drop, then immediately had to abandon the pocket (usually forward and right) and then try to throw. Our pass protection is 100% less than optimal right now. It’s difficult to throw intermediate passes off platform, and out of the pocket.
It’s possible that Baker is bailing out too soon, but not likely.
September 23rd, 2026 at 2:23 pm
We might get the first overall pick.
September 23rd, 2026 at 3:12 pm
Those short passes are how you pad your completion percentage and booster your passer rating.
September 23rd, 2026 at 3:17 pm
Todd Says:
September 23rd, 2026 at 1:45 pm
Bakers’ average time to throw was 3.07 seconds in the Browns game.
——–
And he was over 3 seconds in the Bengals game as well.
All the people complaining about the offensive line are ignoring the obvious – Baker is holding the ball too long.
This is what Baker does when he loses confidence, it’s happened over and over again, so it’s nothing new – but he’ll drop back, doesn’t trust what he is seeing, will start bouncing up and down, patting the ball, hesitating, etc.
It’s exactly the same thing we saw in week 1, and we saw again last week.
The ALL22 shows guys open all over the field, and Baker just refuses to throw the ball because he’s not trusting his arms, or has no faith in his ability to make the pass.
BUT, as I’ve pointed out before, Baker is ultra streaky, and can just randomly break out of these slumps. But Baker hasn’t had a good game in 13 weeks, so when does it go from being streaky, to him just not being a good quarterback, and realizing that 2024 was a fluke.
September 23rd, 2026 at 4:31 pm
Like other Buc fans, I’m over hearing Bowles say the same thing over the last 12 games…it’s obvious he and his staff can’t “coach it better”. It’s obvious Baker is not right. Injured for most of last year and now, he looks like he’s regressed. idk what has happened with the defense. The middle of the field has been open for 2 seasons….and Bowles said the middle should never be open..so why does it happen and why can’t he get it fixed. And I agree with others, stop pulling the linemen into coverage. Winning the NFC South is no feat. Come on…it’s the worse division in the league. Has been for 4 years. I still can’t believe Baker puts himself in the same discussion as Josh Allen, Mahomes or Lamar Jackson. But, he got his money and after this contract, he will retire.