Every Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan is rooting for Baker Mayfield to succeed, and most fans are upset with Jason Licht and the organization for submitting contract offers to the former Heisman winner that are well below the market rate for a franchise quarterback. Mayfield fielded offers below the $50 million per season threshold, and now the Bucs risk letting their most important player walk in free agency next year.
But the way Baker handled the aftermath of the negotiations, putting the team on blast and implying that there is unrest in the locker room by saying that there is none when nobody was even questioning a problem, has rubbed many inside the organization the wrong way.
It is the sort of double speak that Mayfield has engaged in when he feels he is scorned, and Licht and the Bucs are not the first people to face the wrath of Baker weaponizing the media and his cult like following of fans against them. He did this with Kevin Stefanski and the Cleveland Browns for a while, still holding a grudge to this day, and he made easily irrefutable remarks about how Steve Wilks was the reason he didn't make it with the Carolina Panthers.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield has a questionable résumé
Baker Mayfeld is a talented quarterback, but he is also a talented quarterback who came into the NFL as a top draft pick and has won just two playoff games in nearly a decade in the league. Any other quarterback would be asked by their organization to prove they are a franchise guy, especially after having a poor season in which they were the quarterback of one of the worst collapses in recent memory, and any other player with his draft pedigree would have to face more questions about winning than not. Mayfield is a player with the resume of an Andy Dalton asking to be treated like Tampa Bay's second Tom Brady.
He did this a lot with the Cleveland Browns, throwing teammates under the bus during their contract negotiations despite being a leader of the team. He made more headlines by playing through an injury and fighting with his coach and best wide receiver, who won a Super Bowl immediately after leaving him behind, than anything he did on the field after his moment of glory against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
History is against Mayfield, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have to hope that the failed contract negotiations galvanize him to play better instead of causing him to feel rejected by the organization and spiral into another descent like the ones he had in Cleveland and even Charlotte.
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