Answer is no, Buccaneers do not need to bring in Baker Mayfield

Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns at Raymond James Stadium, Tampa Bay Buccaneers Mandatory Credit: Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports
Baker Mayfield, Cleveland Browns at Raymond James Stadium, Tampa Bay Buccaneers Mandatory Credit: Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports

The rumors of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers bringing in Baker Mayfield need to stay as just that. Rumors. Such a move would make no sense for the Buccaneers.

Now that most of the big-name quarterbacks have gotten off the carousel for the time being (we think) the NFL community at large’s attention seems to have their collective eyes on what’s going to happen with the Cleveland Browns and Baker Mayfield.

Now that the Browns have gone out of their way to acquire, and pay, the, shall we say, “controversial” yet talented Deshaun Watson, the future of Mayfield remains unclear. A trade seemed the most likely, but with the Browns’ reported asking price, it’s been a little difficult for a team to pull the trigger for the 2018 number one overall draft pick.

The Bucs were reportedly interested, but not for a first or second-round pick, and are also potentially going to be in the mix if Cleveland is forced to just outright cut Baker.

The Buccaneers should absolutely not bring Baker Mayfield to Tampa Bay.

For starters, he wouldn’t even be the starter, thanks to a little ballplayer named Tom Brady. That said, he would still probably command more money than the average backup quarterback on the open market. That’s not even mentioning the slight possibility of the Bucs potentially giving up draft capital.

Of course, if Mayfield were to back up Brady, one would surmise that he would eventually take over as the starting quarterback. Of course, that would replace the man who was originally penciled in for that job in Kyle Trask. If this were to happen, it would completely halt any development the young signal-caller has gone through, and do more damage than good. It would also confirm that the 2021 second-round pick was completely wasted.

Naturally, the prospect of Mayfield over an unknown homegrown commodity in Trask would sell more tickets once Brady leaves for a franchise that has struggled to do so when things aren’t going swimmingly, but it honestly isn’t worth it from a football sense. We know what Mayfield is. Sure, the Buccaneers have loads of talent on offense, but so did Baker’s Browns. Why should we suspect anything different?

At the end of the day, this rumored Baker-Buccaneers connection certainly holds some weight. Where there is smoke there’s fire after all. That said, the Bucs should leave them as just rumors and stick with Brady, Trask, and the newly-resigned Ryan Griffin as the quarterbacks. Let Trask gain more experience as a second-string to Tom Brady, and continue his development that way. Besides, Brady has never been one to leave the field often, and hopefully, it stays that way. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers do not need Baker Mayfield.

Schedule