Although Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans are 100 percent sold on Baker Mayfield as their franchise quarterback and have no doubts about handing him a lucrative contract extension to erase all doubts before the 2026 NFL regular season begins, not everyone, particularly those outside of Tampa Bay, shares that opinion.
Mayfield is a volatile and polarizing personality, and he was that way for both the Cleveland Browns and the Carolina Panthers, with the latter, rival fan base understandably having a rockier perception of the former Heisman Trophy winner.
But Buccaneers fans won't care about what the Panthers faithful think about the Bake, nor are they too pleased with what certain figures in the national media have to say either. Former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark has made a reputation for ruffling feathers and saying the controversial, which is why he is a lot more well known as an analyst than he was for being a player (though he was a pretty good safety next to Troy Polamalu).
Baker Mayfield has his doubters
Clark does not sound like he is a fan of Mayfield and is just the latest personality to express doubt in the Buccaneers quarterback. The ESPN analyst said of Mayfield on the Mina Kimes Show, via Joe Bucs Fan, that he saw concerning signs from the signal caller at the end of the 2025 NFL regular season.
When you watch the Bucs, especially late in the season, you get one of those feelings about their quarterback where you’re like, ‘We saw some things from Baker [Mayfield] that make us nervous that we thought were no longer part of his game," said Clark.
Although Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans will disagree with Ryan Clark and not take too kindly with his critical assessment of the soon to be $50 million (and more) franchise quarterback, he actually is making a point that Bucs fans have to think about as the negotiations are ongoing.
Mayfield's 2025 season felt a lot like the end of his road with the Cleveland Browns in which he played hurt, played poorly, and totally fell apart before the Browns moved on from him. He has bad habits of trying to do too much, not being the most accurate, getting in his own head when real adversity hits, and not taking care of the football. If these problems persist, Bucs fans may have to go back to the second half of the 2025 season to see where it all went wrong.
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