Coming into the 2026 NFL regular season, there were a lot of questions surrounding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after an inexcusable collapse in the second half of the 2025 season in which they blew the NFC South lead and missed out on the playoffs. But most analysts around the league, even those low on the Bucs and who viewed them as a bottom half team in the NFL, had Tampa tabbed as NFC South champions again in 2026.
A big reason for that was the quarterback position. Although New Orleans Saints signal caller Tyler Shough looked intriguing, Carolina Panthers young gun Bryce Young had a big year, and the Atlanta Falcons brought in Tua Tagavailoa on a flier, there was a clear consensus that the Buccaneers had the best quarterback in the division in brief 2025 NFL MVP candidate Baker Mayfield. And if anything, that was solidified just weeks before the season started when the Bucs signed Mayfield to a lucrative new contract extension.
Fast forward two weeks into the 2026 NFL season, and Mayfield is 0-2 with both losses to the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns squarely on his shoulders for poor leadership, terrible ball security, and constantly missing open wide receivers, namely Chris Godwin Jr. and Emeka Egbuka, with one of the league's more talented offenses surrounding him.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers no longer have the best QB in the NFC South
Meanwhile, Tyler Shough and Bryce Young are living it up. Both quarterbacks are in the top five in passing yards in the league after two weeks, while Baker Mayfield is struggling badly to move the ball forward for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, totally wasting top wide receiver duo Chris Godwin Jr. and Emeka Egbuka.
Shough and Young are both 1-1 and leading the league in key statistical categories. Young is first with six touchdowns while Shough is first with 662 passing yards. Mayfield, meanwhile, is 24th in yardage and getting badly outplayed by the other two. And with Young and the Panthers putting up more than 30 points on the Atlanta Falcons and Chicago Bears while Shough took down Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens, Mayfield losing to Deshaun Watson and the Browns looks even worse.
If this trend continues, Buccaners fans can no longer sit there and say that they boast a crucial advantage over their NFC South rivals in Mayfield being the best quarterback in the division. Right now, he is getting badly outplayed by the other two, and that is making the questions about Mayfield truly being a franchise quarterback sound even louder.
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