There are a lot of hot takes about Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers right now, but, well, you can't blame people for teeing off a little bit on an organization that is on the verge of a collapse of epic proportions.
At the beginning of the season, the question was not whether or not the Bucs would make the playoffs but if they would be Super Bowl contenders. And the NFC South? The Bucs winning was simply a formality.
Instead, the Bucs face the very real possibility of missing out on the playoffs entirely, because after losing to a Miami Dolphins side that is pretty much openly tanking, the Buccaneers will finish the 2025 NFL regular season with a losing record. Three straight NFC South losses and an Atlanta Falcons upset win over the Los Angeles Rams means that the Bucs no longer even control their own destiny in the dirty south.
Baker Mayfield has kept the Bucs afloat
It's a shame, then, that the ills of an entire team have come down hard across the bow of one man. Mayfield is a player who has always worn his heart on his sleeve, and after the ego boost of being the savior of the Cleveland Browns to the rock bottom period of his time with the Carolina Panthers, the Bake seemed to emerge, reborn, with the Buccaneers as a true franchise quarterback.
With the latest string of results, national analysts have flipped the false script they themselves manufactured. The same people who were building up Mayfield as an elite quarterback are now tearing into him and stating that he is not a franchise quarterback, that the Bucs should move on from him, and that he is a big reason why the Bucs are in the shape they are in right now.
But here's the rub. Every true Buccaneers fan who watches this team week in and week out knows that this is simply not true. Without Mayfield, the Bucs would not even be in contention for the NFC South crown. With how poorly coached this team is under Todd Bowles and with one of the least talented defenses in the NFL, especially from a pass rushing perspective, they would have never gotten off to that hot start early in the season without Mayfield.
Take Mayfield out of the Bucs, and this is a three win team in the worst division in football. They would iterally be in the NFC South basement without Mayfield's moxie and playmaking ability. Now, the notion that Mayfield is an elite quarterback on the level of a Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson was always overblown, but you can embrace a quarterback's flaws without completely tearing their credibility apart.
Mayfield is a very fine NFL quarterback and a legitiamte franchise signal caller until proven otherwise. And with how horrid this Bucs defense and coaching staff has been, that case against Mayfield has not been proven by any means.