Who cares about the games this upcoming weekend, we've got some juicy drama oozing out of the NFC South.
Baker Mayfield was minding his own business when a reporter decided to drag his name through the mud while attempting to praise new Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski. The gist of it was calling Baker a failure and blaming him for contributing to a 'dumpster fire' that eventually led to Stefanski's firing in Cleveland.
It's the type of stuff that not only didn't sit well with Bucs fans but fired Baker up enough to clap back on social media with an epic rant.
"Failed is quite the reach pal. Still waiting on a text/call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage. Can’t wait to see you twice a year, Coach," Baker wrote.
Failed is quite the reach pal. Still waiting on a text/call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage. Can’t wait to see you twice a year, Coach. https://t.co/jUUsYkvlOC
— Baker Mayfield (@bakermayfield) January 20, 2026
Fire up the That's My Quarterback memes, because this ranks pretty high up there as far as the most awesome things Baker has done.
Baker Mayfield wasn't about to let Kevin Stefanski re-write their history together
Baker was with Stenfanski back when the Browns hadn't won a playoff game since re-entering the league in 1999. It was both of those guys who helped change that, and everything Baker is doing to change the identity of the Bucs he was doing for Cleveland before getting unceremoniously discarded for Deshaun Watson.
If there's a chain of events to point out here, it's how the disrespect Baker received from Browns kicked him down a spiral that didn't stop until he landed in Tampa Bay. What makes this even worse is that after Stefanski was fired he tried to blame the Browns for the Baker decision, when it appears he was complicit all along.
It's not just the clap back, which is completely justified, it's that it continues a trend that suggests the Buccaneers are not going to let what happened last year happen again. After starting the season 5-2, the Bucs suffered a historic collapse that saw them finish with a losing record while fumbling away the division crown for the first time since 2020.
A lot of people wore the blame for that, but it's been clear from how angsty the Bucs have been since that their pride has been hurt. Tristan Wirfs was beefing with Cam Jordan on social media when the latter called him out on a podcast, and now we have this from Baker going after his old head coach who now joins him in the NFC South.
This stuff just flat out rules, and it's proof that the Bucs still have an edge to them even if we didn't see a lot of that down the stretch of the season. Everything seems to start with Baker -- he was an MVP candidate when the team was hot, and things fell off when his play took a step back -- and this is no different.
If the Bucs are this fired up in the offseason, and have eight months to stew, it's a pretty good omen for things to come in terms of next season being a revenge tour unlike one we've seen the team go on.