It's been two years since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were pretty much declared dead after Tom Brady retired, yet the team has experienced nothing but success.
Despite being dubbed the second-worst team in the league around this time back in 2023, the Bucs won an NFC South crown in the first post-Brady season. A year later, when re-signing Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans was deemed not enough to fend off the Kirk Cousins-led Falcons, Tampa Bay defended its crown by winning the division for a record-setting fourth straight time.
The moral of the story is not to bet against the Bucs until proven otherwise, and so far, we haven't seen a good reason for that. A lot of the success can be boiled down to the team's insane chemistry and how immaculate the vibes have been with Tampa Bay's most important players.
We were reminded of that this week in an unsuspecting way.
Mike Evans' birthday message to Baker Mayfield was more than what it appears
Earlier this week, Mike Evans posted a birthday message to Baker Mayfield, featuring a video on his Instagram of his quarterback scrambling on one of Angry Runs. The video has the following message attached: "@BakerMayfield Happy B Day Brother"
Keep in mind, Evans rarely posts personal things like this on his social media accounts, so it's instantly notable from that perspective.
On the surface, that seems like a really lame thing to try and make into a big deal, which isn't incorrect. It's a bit misguided, though, as it undersells and flat-out ignores the real meaning behind such an unassuming little message.
This isn't just a pleasantry shared between co-workers; the way you feel obligated to sign the office birthday card for the person, you have to think twice about what the correct name to write it; this is chemistry that has helped define a new era for the Bucs.
We all know the big picture by now, that when Tom Brady retired nobody thought Tampa Bay would go anywhere other than backwards. Then Baker came along and not only revived his career but imprinted a new identity on the franchise. Now he's a $100 million quarterback and the buy-in on the new culture is off the charts.
This is something a seemingly small gesture like a birthday message shows. There are 52 players on the active roster and they all have birthdays, but Evans isn't sending out public notes to them all. The fact that he singled out Baker is worth reading into from the standpoint that there's a tight connection in the locker room that needs to be accounted for when thinking about the ceiling for this team in 2025.
In back-to-back seasons, so-called experts have been quick to bury the Bucs but they've bounced back to silence the doubters. The route there required overcoming losing streaks that should have been fatal but weren't, which ties back into something as subtle as a birthday message ressonating so much.
A team doesn't navigate out of choppy waters the way the Bucs have without excellent chemistry; Baker and Evans are tone-setters and the vibes are so great specifically because of them. They both chose to return to Tampa Bay rather than leave for more money, there's a genuine caring relationship between the two, and everyone around them benefits from that.
What might seem like a simply birthday message is a lot deeper to those paying attention, and it's a big reason why the Bucs aren't a team to bet against next season until given a reason to think otherwise.
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