‘He’s got to quit doing this’ — Former Bucs head coach Bruce Arians had a pointed message for Baker Mayfield after Vikings loss
The Bucs’ Super Bowl winning head coach had some direct advice for the team’s franchise gunslinger.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost more than a football game on Sunday. Baker Mayfield suffered a dislocated thumb in the Bucs’ 23-16 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, and the franchise quarterback will miss a minimum of three weeks. The injury compounds a miserable 0-3 start for Tampa Bay, who have found new ways to lose each of their first three games.
But one constant has been an offense that has struggled and has turned the football over, and a significant portion of that falls on Mayfield.
Bruce Arians appeared on “Up & Adams” on the NFL Network addressed those turnover issues and had a simple message for the Bucs’ franchise quarterback: throw the ball away.
Arians says Mayfield needs to ‘throw the damn ball away’
“They’re not making the plays that were there,” Arians said. “There are times when they’re there and they’re not making them. The offensive line is one of the best in the league, and he’s got to quit doing this (during video clip of Mayfield’s late fourth quarter interception). Just throw the damn ball away. And that’s not his nature. I know. But this is how he always gets hurt. I haven’t had that conversation with him personally, but we need you on the field.”
“When I first met him, I said, ‘if you’re going to run like this, we’re putting bigger shoulder pads on you,” Arians added. “It’s a very fine line because you can’t break who they are. My comments last year about Jaxson Dart and JJ McCarthy, we need you on the field. We don’t need superman. All the guys in the locker room know you’re tough. You don’t have to prove to anybody you’re tough. But we need you playing smart not scared.”
The play that ended Mayfield’s afternoon came with under two minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Bucs trailed by four points in their own territory, and coach Todd Bowles rolled the dice on fourth-and-13 instead of punting the ball away and playing defense. Mayfield, who spent a large portion of the afternoon running for his life, got more of the same against the Vikings’ dominating defensive front. He was chased across the field, threw it up to avoid a sack, and the pass was intercepted. Immediately upon releasing the ball, he was hit by a defender and suffered the dislocated thumb.
Quarterback Jalon Daniels came into the game but was unable to lead a final drive to tie things up.
Mayfield’s nature and playing style is the ultimate double edged sword, and the Bucs aren’t living by it this year
Arians might want Mayfield to dial it down and avoid injury risk and turnovers by throwing the ball away. But that’s who Mayfield is, and sadly, with this offense right now, they need some “risk it, biscuit” this year on an offense that simply can’t move the ball and put points on the board. They need those big plays that come along with the head scratchers, and right now, they’re just getting the latter.
But Arians is right in that, while remaining aggressive, Mayfield needs to find a way to avoid the turnovers and injuries that can both derail a game and, in the case of injury, potentially the season. That’s something that the Bucs’ own coaches have mentioned before relating to Mayfield’s risks and resulting injuries.
We’ll see if Mayfield plays any differently when he gets back in the field in perhaps a few weeks. We’ll also see if the Bucs still have anything left to play for by that point.
