The past five games have been particularly brutal for Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield, whose performance has taken a major dip from where he was at the beginning of the season. Is this officially the worst slump of Mayfield's career? Let's take a look at his last five games and compare them to other rocky patches.
2025: Weeks 7-12
Mayfield's last five games have been rough. Tampa Bay is 1-4, and Mayfield's numbers have taken a huge hit. He's completed 58.5% of his passes for 867 yards (173.4 yards per game). He's thrown six touchdowns and four interceptions, while rushing for one touchdown and losing two fumbles. Overall, that gives him seven total touchdowns and six total turnovers in the past five games. His 74.9 passer rating looks more like that of a high-level backup than an NFL starter.
2024: Weeks 5-10
Last year, Mayfield and Tampa Bay had a similar losing streak, losing five of six games between Weeks 5 and 10. During that stretch, however, Mayfield threw 16 touchdowns and completed 70.7% of his throws, with a passer rating of 101.7. It's fair to say that while the Buccaneers were struggling, Mayfield was not the one to blame for those struggles.
2023: Weeks 3-12
In 2023, Mayfield and the Buccaneers had a stretch where their record was 2-7. Mayfield, in those nine games, had a 63.8% completion rate and threw 14 touchdowns compared to 7 interceptions. Not amazing numbers, but still not as bad as his numbers have been over the past five games in 2025.
2021: Weeks 5-17
This stretch for the Browns included a bye week and multiple weeks when Mayfield was out with an injury and did not play. Still, it also included ten games Mayfield did start, and the Browns were 3-7 in those games. Mayfield had a 58.7% completion rate and an 80.7 passer rating. Still, he threw 15 touchdowns to 11 interceptions and averaged 207 yards per game. Right now, Tampa Bay wishes it could have that kind of passing attack.
2022: Weeks 1-5
We've found it. The worst five-game stretch of Baker Mayfield's career. In his first five games as the Carolina Panthers' starting QB, Mayfield was downright awful. He posted a 54.9% completion rate, a passer rating of 71.9, and threw just four touchdowns in five games, while also tossing four interceptions. It's a miracle Carolina managed to win one of those five games, a 22-14 win over the Saints in Week 3. It's no surprise the Panthers decided to ditch Mayfield for Sam Darnold and eventually Bryce Young, although they still might wish they had held onto him now.
Verdict: Mayfield's past five games have been bad, but this is not the worst slump of his career. Furthermore, Mayfield has proven time and again he can overcome bad streaks with great stretches of play to close out seasons. Hopefully, he can do it again.