In A Way, Baker Mayfield Is Tom Brady For Tampa Bay Buccaneers

In 2022, when Tom Brady played his last NFL season, Forbes said he was the highest-paid guy in the league at $75 million. Such a salary for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback (you know, via the New England Patriots) had much to do with a Super Bowl ring for nearly each of his fingers.

The new guy for the Buccaneers is Baker Mayfield, owner of zero trips to the Super Bowl on his NFL resume of six years. After previous stops with the Cleveland Browns, the Carolina Panthers and the Los Angeles Rams, he signed a one-year deal in March with the Buccaneers for a guaranteed $4 million, but the whole thing could be worth up to $8.5 million.

Let’s see.

Even if it’s $8.5 million, that’s a long way from $75 million.

Since Godwin has spent all seven of his NFL seasons with the Buccaneers, he saw Brady’s arrival to the franchise in March 2020 after the future Pro Football Hall of Famer led the Patriots to six world championships.

Brady spent his first year working full time in Florida taking his new team to both the Super Bowl and a Vince Lombardi trophy.

In contrast, Mayfield’s Buccaneers are just trying to reach .500 before the season runs out of games. They’re 6-7, but here’s the rest of the story. Thanks to the heavily flawed NFC South, they own the tiebreakers sitting atop the division with the 6-7 Atlanta Falcons and the 6-7 New Orleans Saints.

We’re back to Mayfield’s clutch gene.

It didn’t surface often in Cleveland after Mayfield signed a four-year rookie contract worth $32,682,980 when the Browns made him the No. 1 pick overall in the 2018 NFL draft following his Heisman Trophy season at Oklahoma.

By the end of that deal, the Browns preferred to give a five-year contract worth $230 million to Deshaun Watson, the hottest free-agent quarterback of the moment, and Mayfield wanted out. He was traded to the Panthers in July 2022 for nothing worth mentioning (OK, a 2024 conditional fifth-round draft pick, which can become a fourth-round pick).

Then, following brief success with the Rams after they claimed him on waivers that December, he was off to the Buccaneers as yesterday’s hero.

Not only was Mayfield’s clutch gene back Sunday, but it resembled the one that made him famous during his high school days in Austin, Texas and later his college stint at Texas Tech and Oklahoma.

Still, Mayfield and the Buccaneers offense were dreadful for long stretches against the Falcons. Entering the afternoon, Tampa Bay ranked 24th in the NFL in total yards on offense, but this was worse than normal: They owned just 94 yards overall midway through the third quarter.

Everything changed in a flash.

Mayfield turned into his version of Brady — with help from Rachaad White grinding his way to many of his 102 yards rushing.

Suddenly, the Buccaneers had leads of 19-10 and 19-17 and 22-17 during the second half before the Falcons sent their crowd howling by marching 75 yards on five plays to reach the end zone. There was of miracle pass and catch of 45 yards from Desmond Ridder to Drake London, and Ridder later had a six-yard touchdown run to give the Falcons a 23-22 lead with three minutes left in the game.

The Falcons even added a two-point conversion.

The game was over.

Then it wasn’t.

“I just see nobody flinching,” Mayfield told reporters, describing the mood when the Buccaneers took the huddle behind their 25-yard line after the Falcons’ last touchdown drive. “Nobody is wide eyed. Everybody seems really calm, just ready for the next play. That’s what you want. Cool, calm and collected and ready to go to work.”

The Buccaneers reached the Falcons’ 47-yard line for third and 10, but Mayfield hit Godwin on a 32-yard pass play.

Two plays later, the Buccaneers surged ahead for good on Mayfield’s 11-yard throw to Cade Otton in the end zone.

“Baker is who we are,” Otton told me. “We believe throughout the whole game. We fight throughout the whole game. That’s kind of the identity were taking on as the team. We have a lot to clean up, but it’s just that belief and fight that gives us a chance. As football players, and as a team, we compete and fight, and that’s who Baker is.”