Bucs QB Baker Mayfield gets a major slight from national outlet in ranking among all NFL starting quarterbacks
Baker Mayfield has had quite the career renaissance in Tampa Bay. The Bucs' starter has turned in back-to-back seasons leading one of the best offenses in football while putting together Pro Bowl performances of his own. While Baker has been getting some attaboys here and there among the national media, imagine if Mayfield had put […]
Baker Mayfield has had quite the career renaissance in Tampa Bay. The Bucs' starter has turned in back-to-back seasons leading one of the best offenses in football while putting together Pro Bowl performances of his own.
While Baker has been getting some attaboys here and there among the national media, imagine if Mayfield had put together Pro Bowl seasons in Pittsburgh, New York, or Dallas while lifting them to division titles? His praises would be sung nationally, and his place among the NFL's QBs would be lofty.
It appears you can add Pro Football Focus to the tally of those who aren't giving the Bucs' starting QB his full credit. PFF ranked all 32 starting quarterbacks this week, and Mayfield came in 13th. PFF claims their rankings are based on "a combination of recent performance and career trajectory".
Pro Football Focus says that Mayfield is among the starting quarterbacks who are "solid starters, but they need more help".
This is what PFF had to say about Mayfield:
Mayfield has pulled off a remarkable career turnaround. After bouncing back in 2023, he delivered the best season of his career in 2024, earning an 85.9 overall grade. He’ll now be working with his third offensive coordinator in three years in Tampa Bay — and his fifth since 2022 — but the struggles of 2021-2022 feel firmly in the rearview mirror. His 2024 campaign also featured one of the wildest plays of the season, completing a pass with one of the league’s top pass rushers draped all over him. – John Kosko, Pro Football Focus
It's hard to see how Mayfield is a "Tier 3b" QB below Geno Smith and Jordan Love in the rankings, at least over the last two years' body of work. Baker was top three in the NFL in 2024 in completion percentage, passing yards, and passing touchdowns. Perhaps PFF dinged him for an NFL-leading 16 interceptions, but that's a byproduct of his game in the Bucs' offense – although they still gave him a very good overall mark of 85.9. The good has significantly outweighed the bad.
And Mayfield doesn't need more help, at least not on offense. He has what's become a brick wall in front of him. He's had the best wide receiver trio in the NFL, and now he'll have the best wide receiver quartet and a strong trio of running backs behind him. Cade Otton is a good TE1. I'm honestly not sure what they mean with him "needing more help".
If anything, perhaps, the Bucs need more help on the defensive side of the ball, which cost them games more than anything in 2024. But they addressed that this offseason with some key additions there in free agent edge rusher Haason Reddick and a number of key draft picks.
Baker has undoubtedly played better than a tier 3b quarterback in the NFL. Bucs fans hope he can continue to show that in 2025.
Bucs offense seems to be ‘a step further’ compared to where it was last year which means scary things for the rest of the NFL
In terms of straight-up production, the 2024 version of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense was one of the best versions we've ever seen. Only the 2020 and 2021 seasons can be argued as better. And it's easy to see why people are expecting an encore in 2025 when considering the offense returns all 11 starters. […]
