Now that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have officially opened OTAs, we’re getting out first good look at what the team looks like in the immediate aftermath of the Tom Brady era.
Let’s not dance around what that really means, we’re getting our first look at Baker Mayfield as the potential QB1 for the Bucs. Tampa Bay signed the former No. 1 overall pick this March to compete with Kyle Trask and likely be the team’s starter this season.
From the start it Mayfield joining the Bucs was telegraphed as a joke, and fits into a growing narrative by the national media burying the team now that Brady is gone. To be fair, Tom Brady took the spotlight he brought with him to Tampa Bay when he retired but the extent to which the team is getting written off is beginning to border on ridiculous.
Mayfield is the poster child for that, as his baggage has been combined with that of the Bucs and made for a perfect storm of trolling.
Footage of Baker Mayfield at Bucs OTAs is heavily edited to make him look bad (Video)
Look no further than Baker’s first appearance at Buccaneers OTAs this week.
You’re probably already familiar with the footage of Baker at Buccaeers camp that went viral this week. In what appeared to be his first throw since joining the tam, Baker badly missed his target and easily fed into the narrative that he’s going to be a disaster for the team.
Baker Mayfield first look in a Bucs uniform 🔥 pic.twitter.com/2R0Hz1Eiq8
— NFL Memes (@NFL_Memes) May 25, 2023
Unsurprisingly, it turns out that the footage was havily edited and purposefully excluded the rest of his throws. That’s probably because he didn’t miss any of the other ones and actually looked pretty good.
This is so lame. Been seeing this circulate for 48 hours.
— Evan Closky (@ECloskyWTSP) May 25, 2023
Here is a melt of all the throws I recorded from Baker Mayfield on Day 1 of OTAs. I included the one posted in there, but as you can see -- it was the only dud. #GoBucs https://t.co/BWuiLtyhTI pic.twitter.com/zlFPh3TFDn
Of course, that doesn’t fit the narrative that Baker is washed and the Bucs are going to sink to the bottom of the league with him as quarterback.
Just like when Brady came to Tampa Bay, fans needed to do a 180 on some of the negative feelings we’ve all had about him throughout his career in New England. Something similar is happening with Mayfeld, as he’s growing to embody the general disdain everyone seems to have for the Bucs and is a guy the entire franchise is rallying around.
Baker represents more than just a potential QB1, and the hate he’s getting in combination with the negativity around the Bucs is quickly making him more of an endearing leader than we ever thought he’d be.