Among the many satisfying things about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 2-0 start to the season is watching all of the detractors and doubters get silenced.
The persistent narrative throughout the offseason revolved around how the Bucs were cooked without Tom Brady, to the point where the team showing up in Week 1 would take some heroic act of bravery. In no world could this glorified Pop Warner team compete with the rest of the league, seemed to the the general sentiment.
We're still very early in the season, but through the first two weeks, it's pretty undeniable that the Bucs are much better than experts predicted they'd be. An upset win over the Vikings and a convincing win over the Bears have the Bucs at 2-0 and fully in contention.
It also has the team and it's quarterback making some folks double back on what they said over the offseason.
Colin Cowherd admits he was wrong about Baker Mayfield (sort of)
One of the loudest critics of Baker Mayfield this offseason was Colin Cowherd. It wasn't that he built some sort of massive hot take about him, rather it was how he seemingly swooped in out of nowhere to bring Baker and his struggles up.
More than that, he was convinced that the Bucs were going nowhere in the first year without Brady epsecially with Baker in charge.
This week Cowherd walked that back.
“I think this football team is way better than I thought,” Cowherd said. “Believe it or not, this makes me happy. I think, absolutely, with this roster, you can have a Geno Smith story. In that division, you tell me they can’t sneak into the playoffs?"
Credit where it's due, Cowherd essentially admitted that he was wrong. He didn't outright put his hand up and say that, but he's not letting his offseason take blind him from the fact that Baker looks much better than he thought.
One comment specifically stood out. Over the offseason Cowherd called out Baker's maturity and compared it to guys like Patrick Mahomes in terms of what a leader should look like.
“That was the problem with Baker. confident but it became conceit or arrogant or maybe both, and it was obnoxious at times," Cowherd said over the summer.
While praising Baker and the Bucs on his show this week, Cowherd changed his tune.
“ humbled like Geno Smith. Matured like Geno Smith," Cowherd said.
Baker has slowly been getting his flowers after a gutsy start to the season, and while not everyone is sold on his about face it's nice to see him getting some respect from some of the loudest voices. We'll see where things go over the next few weeks, as the schedule is about to get a lot tougher, but for now Baker is...baking...and folks are starting to line up and give him kudos on his skills.