The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fought neck and neck with the New England Patriots in the marquee matchup of Week 11 of the 2025 NFL season, and while the game itself lived up to the hype, the Bucs, unfortunately did not.
While the accusations of this Bucs team being the same old, barely above average Bucs are a bit off the mark and do not take into context the severe brunt of the injuries suffered to the wide receiver corps and offensive line, it is valid to state that the Bucs are a step below the true Super Bowl contenders in the NFL.
Likewise, Baker Mayfield, in what was a more mediocre performance than his 273 passing yards and 3 touchdowns to 0 interceptions would suggest, also proved he is a step below the true MVP candidates and elite quarterbacks in this league.
Mayfield was gassed up for weeks as an MVP candidate, but over the past month, he's been shaky. The numbers still look great, but as was the case against the Patriots, they were buoyed by some extracurricular number generation in the game's final minutes.
For most of the game, Mayfield was significantly outplayed by a more methodical Drake Maye, who outshined Mayfield as an MVP candidate in this showcase matchup. Mayfield wasn't bad, per se, but he wasn't great on an afternoon when the Bucs needed him to be great. The Bucs needed Baker to be a leader and pull the team up, weathering the losses to the line and receivers.
Instead of being their MVP, Mayfield sort of just stayed the course on the same level as the rest of the players around him. He was meh. He made some throws, he forced others to Emeka Egbuka instead of trying to make smart plays and take what the defense was giving him. Mayfield played more with his guts than his brain, and whlie living and dying with his heart on his sleeve is what Bucs fans have come to admire about him, a more cerebral approach would have served this franchise better against a more efficient and surgical Patriots offense.
Mayfield had the hype of the early season, but as things have settled down, he is back to being exactly who every reasonable NFL fan thought he was. Baker is a very good quarterback who can absolutely win a Super Bowl if everything else with a team is in place 100 percent. But if it is not, Mayfield is going to struggle a bit towards the mean, because he's not an elite quarterback like a Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, or Lamar Jackson. There's nothing wrong with very good, but when the injuries pile up and the opponent gets tougher, Baker's flaws start to peek through.
That said, Mayfield can re-enter the MVP conversation. Things can always change. Bucky Irving, Chris Godwin, and Mike Evans aren't going to be injured forever. Neither are the offensive linemen. With marquee matchups against the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams, who both boast MVP candidates, coming up, Mayfield can play himself into the conversation just as easily as he has played himself out of it in recent weeks. But remember that if he does, the praise from Bucs fans should go just as much to those underrated teammates, too, for being such a huge help to Baker.