The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a season to forget in 2025. From 6-2, the Bucs stumbled down the stretch to a 2-7 finish to miss the postseason for the first time since the 2019 season.

And there was certainly plenty of blame to go around. That included Bucs QB Baker Mayfield, who had a season to forget, along with the most of the rest of the offense. Mayfield set new lows for his Tampa Bay tenure in completion percentage (63.2%), passing yards (3693), passing touchdowns (26), and passer rating (90.6).

According to Pro Football Focus, Mayfield was lucky that his total of 11 interceptions last season wasn’t higher, as well. Mark Chichester of PFF included Mayfield at No. 7 on his list of eight QBs who could see their interception totals increase in 2026.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield makes PFF list of QBs likely to throw more interceptions in 2026

“Few quarterbacks in this dataset illustrate the volatility of interception luck more clearly than Mayfield,” Chichester wrote. “In 2019 with Cleveland, he finished as the second-unluckiest quarterback in football, with a net-luck figure of -8.1, throwing 21 interceptions on a passing profile the model projected to be closer to 13. Six years later, the variance swung dramatically in the opposite direction. Mayfield’s 2025 season ranked seventh among the luckiest quarterback seasons in the league, fueled by a turnover-worthy-throw-to-interception conversion rate of just 25.0% on 20 turnover-worthy throws. Defenders dropped six additional would-be interceptions, and Mayfield finished with 11 interceptions despite league-average outcomes projecting closer to 14.

“The year-over-year swing was especially dramatic. Mayfield’s turnover-worthy-throw-to-interception conversion rate fell from 61.1% in 2024 to 25.0% in 2025, a drop of 36.1 percentage points that ranks among the 15 largest single-season swings in the entire dataset.”

There’s no doubt that Mayfield is a bit of a gun slinger and a risk taker. That comes with who he is as a player.

That being said, I think the Bucs’ offense being a mess as a whole had a lot to do with at least some of the turnover-worthy throws that Mayfield made last season. Tampa Bay struggled to run the ball, and Josh Grizzard could not find the buttons to push to sustain drives last year. It also didn’t help that Tampa Bay was often playing catch up thanks to a defense who struggled mightily to stop the pass.

A new-look Bucs offense could help Baker Mayfield get back on track in 02026

The hope for Tampa Bay is to find more of a balance and get back to a ground game that had success in 2024, when they were a top five rushing attack in the NFL. And even with Mike Evans gone, adding WR Ted Hurst and a good receiving back in Kenneth Gainwell should help new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson find ways to move the chains from week to week.

Mayfield is always going to put the ball in harm’s way to some degree. That’s who he is, for better or worse. But as long as the offense becomes more efficient and the big play Baker from 2023-24 returns, the team could live with a bump in interceptions along the way. As long as it’s not a massive one, at least.