The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield seem to be a match.
Mayfield revitalized his career in Tampa Bay in 2023, throwing for 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions and over 4,000 yards passing en route to a playoff victory against the Philadelphia Eagles and a hard-fought loss against the Detroit Lions. The team secured his services with a three-year deal worth up to $115 million and he's now heading into his second year as a Buccaneer.
That being said, trepidation with Mayfield given his past play before 2023 is fair. And like almost every NFL QB, he's far from perfect.
Pro Football Focus recently went over every quarterback's "kryptonite" in a recent article, and for Baker Mayfield, they specifically singled out his troubles when running play action. Here's what writer John Kosko had to say about Mayfield:
"Mayfield likely isn’t going to be a top quarterback in the NFL any time soon but looks to have turned around his career to become a serviceable signal-caller. One thing that typically helps out shorter and mid-tier quarterbacks is play action. It helps to define reads and open up passing lanes. This doesn’t seem to be the case for Mayfield, as his 66.4 play-action passing grade ranks second worst among returning starters. His 75.8 non-play action grade places 13th, which is, obviously, much better."
As Kosko mentioned, it does seem a little paradoxical for Mayfield that he would struggle in play-action. Tampa Bay's running game was putrid last year and probably didn't do too much to spook opposing defenses, but whether or not you need the run game to set up play-action is a debate to be had in itself.
Either way, it'll be an area that Mayfield will perhaps look to work on in 2024, and it will be interesting to see just how often Liam Coen uses it in his new offensive scheme.
