Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise quarterback Baker Mayfield always plays the best football of his life when he has that chip on his shoulder, and while he probably walks through life with a point to prove, Baker seems to grow more powerful when the rest of the NFL doubts him.
He has found himself in that environment with the Bucs all of a sudden after their collapse in the second half of the season, as injuries both to himself and his best players on offense doomed Tampa to finish second to the rival Carolina Panthers in the NFC South. Though the Bucs were the better team, they did not show it, and both Mayfield and his offensive players cannot only blame the injuries, given they still stunk against inferior NFC South competition even when everyone was relatively healthy.
As if Mayfield needed more doubters and more reason to get fired up for a season in a potential contract year with negotiations still barely bumbling along, Sports Illustrated's veteran NFL writer Conor Orr gave the Buccaneers some more ammo.
Orr listed 14 teams that have a fighting chance at winning the Super Bowl this season, and despite extending the list of possibilities to literally nearly half the NFL, the Buccaneers were not among them.
Baker Mayfield has more doubters now
After being branded Super Bowl contenders for the first half of the 2025 NFL regular season and making the playoffs the year before, Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be sticking this article on the proverbial bulletin board and using this and any other sliver of motivation to get them pumped for a big 2026 NFL season.
Mayfield loves the word accountable, and these kinds of snubs can help keep the Bucs accountable on how they are really viewed around the league and how much they have to prove. The standard has slipped badly since Tom Brady was leading the Buccaneers offense, and Mayfield and Todd Bowles have to ackonwledge that while watching their stock slip.
There are so many analysts around the national NFL media who don't think Mayfield is deserving of being paid like a top 10 quarterback or being ranked as a top 10 quarterback anymore, when some of those same people were putting him in the top five of the NFL MVP rankings over the likes of Lamar Jackson and Sam Darnold last season. It's time for him to remind the world who he really is.
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