Baker Mayfield walked into Tampa Bay with a nearly impossible assignment. He was not just taking over for Tom Brady, the quarterback who finished his run with the Buccaneers by winning the final Super Bowl of his record-setting career. He was also arriving on a modest one-year deal with his own future hanging in the balance.
That part mattered just as much. Mayfield came to the Bucs in 2023 after an ugly divorce with the Cleveland Browns, the team that drafted him first overall in 2018, and after a rough 2022 that included a demotion to the scout team with the Carolina Panthers before he finished the season with the Los Angeles Rams.
The pressure was obvious. So was the response.
Mayfield made the Pro Bowl for the first time after the 2023 season, then topped that in 2024 with career highs of 4,500 passing yards and 41 touchdowns, adding another Pro Bowl selection. Tampa Bay also won the NFC South in each of his first two seasons.
But what has stood out inside the building is not just the production. It’s how quickly he connected with the room. According to Zak Keefer of The Athletic, the Bucs’ quarterback was “more relatable” than Brady ever was, and that helped him win over the locker room.
Star left tackle Tristan Wirfs, who has become close friends with Mayfield, pointed to the difference right away.
“Tom really didn’t do anything with us, because he couldn’t. Like, he couldn’t even go to dinner,” said tackle Tristan Wirfs, Mayfield’s closest friend on the team.
“Then Baker comes in, and the first day he’s here he asks me if I wanna grab a beer that night. I’m like, ‘This is sick!'”
Brady’s schedule left little room for that kind of easy bonding in Tampa, even if he made up for it by delivering a championship. General manager Jason Licht made that point while also acknowledging what Mayfield brings to the group.
“I would never throw shade on Tom because I like my ring too much,” said general manager Jason Licht, referencing his Super Bowl LV finery Tom Brady earned him in 2021, “but Baker is just more … relatable.”
Mayfield has never lacked personality. He arrived in the NFL from Oklahoma with a reputation that split people fast: fiery to supporters, cocky to critics. That edge has followed him, but so has the ability to draw people in with his candor, his big personality and his work in the community.
Inside the Buccaneers’ locker room, that mix has landed. He fit from the start because, as the article puts it, he is just one of the guys.
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