The Buccaneers have a Baker Mayfield problem that will continue to cost them games if it isn’t fixed soon
Baker Mayfield is playing some of his worst football right now and it’s holding the Buccaneers back from reaching their ceiling. Will it get fixed so the team can get back on the winning track?
Baker Mayfield was essentially an afterthought during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ two-game win streak and that was just fine.
The Buccaneers were 3-5 at the time and the two victories placed them firmly back into the race for the NFC South. The ground game and the defense were firing on all cylinders heading into the Week 9 matchup with the Chicago Bears and momentum was building.
Then came Baker Mayfield’s performance during the Buccaneers’ heartbreaking loss: multiple inaccurate throws and a back-breaking pick-six are what ultimately doomed Tampa Bay.
Baker Mayfield’s interceptions are just the start of larger issues that have plagued the Buccaneeers quarterback
It’s easy to see just how bad the interceptions are when going back and watching the tape.
The first one was good execution by the Bears, but Mayfield still should have read the defense properly. Chicago started out in a two-high look before the snap, but Cam Lewis doesn’t drop back with Dillon Thieneman after the snap.
Mayfield doesn’t see Lewis, who quickly steps in front of Tez Johnson and snags the interception. Odds are he assumed Lewis was out of the picture based on the two-high look, which obviously wasn’t the right read or decision.
The second interception, the pick-six, was even more egregious. Mayfield just locks in on Cade Otton, who is clearly covered by Jaylon Johnson. My guess is he thought Johnson would carry Egbuka, but Johnson’s body language/leverage/angle doesn’t signal that, whatsoever.
He’s clearly looking, and locked onto, Otton and Baker Mayfield delivers him a hand-wrapped gift that puts the Buccaneers down 24-13 in the fourth quarter.
Mayfield had clean pockets during both plays, too.
The two interceptions are reflections of what we’ve seen from him all year: impatient play and bad decision-making.
Baker Mayfield has constantly created bad situations for both himself and the Buccaneers offense, as a whole, all season long. He’s been antsy in the pocket and inaccurate, as well.
Several balls fell incomplete against the Bears because they were inaccurate. Yes, there some drops that should have been caught but even those balls could’ve been thrown better.
Mayfield finally hit a deep pass, which has been rare, but discussed for over a calendar year, now. But the overall product has been less than impressive or even average over the course of the season.
The Buccaneers are dead last in EPA/pass and Mayfield has more interceptions than passing touchdowns. The drop-off has been pretty wild to witness.
Zac Robinson and the receivers aren’t helping either
Is it all Mayfield’s fault? Of course not. No one is putting all of the passing attack’s failures on him, by any means.
But he is a large part of the issues. However, he’s not getting a lot of help when it comes to Robinson’s play designs. Robinson’s route concepts are often pretty vanilla and they don’t create a ton of space for most of the receivers.
And I say “most” because Chris Godwin Jr. ranks fourth among 70 qualified receivers with an average separation of 4.4 yards when targeted. But he’s the only Buccaneers receiver in the top-42, as Emeka Egbuka is tied for 43rd with a 2.9 mark, per Next Gen Stats.
We just haven’t seen guys schemed open on a routine basis. Sure, it’s happened from time-to-time, but guys are usually having to fight through traffic or make a tough catch in order to come down with the ball.
“That’s definitely one of the things we got to look at during the bye week,” Todd Bowles told reporters when asked about figuring out how to get Mayfield back on track. “Are we comfortable with the calls that we’re calling that he’s comfortable calling and playing with? Are we doing the right things for him schematically, and then how his mechanics are and what he’s seeing on the field?
“And we got to come to a decision on that, and we got to come to that quick because it’s been a little bit of a challenge lately, and we got to make some changes there for the betterment of the team from a coaching and planning standpoint, so we can move forward after the bye.”
How can Baker Mayfield fix his issues?
He’s gotta figure out a way to see the field better, first off. For starters, he missed an easy dump-off to Bucky Irving on a 1st and 10 in the second quarter with :30 left on the clock in favor of a tough deep shot to Egbuka in the end zone.
The Buccaneers still had two timeouts at the time, so he could’ve easily dumped it off and Irving would’ve very likely gained a good chunk of yardage after the catch because there was no one around. Mayfield made life a lot harder than it needed to be on that play.
He needs to see the safety rotation. He needs to see the corner squatting on the tight end.
He needs to be more patient. If he waits an extra tick on the first interception, he’d see Egbuka running wide open in front of him (or if he reads the safety he can get there quicker).
And lastly, he doesn’t need to be stubborn. Far too often does he pre-commit to a target only to see the play end negatively.
There are outside coaching elements that can also help, but Baker Mayfield has to fix these issues, himself, if he wants to get the Buccaneers passing attack on track.
The good news is he and Robinson have the bye week to get started on that. They’ve really gotta dig in during the extra time and at least get one foot in front of the other or else the Buccaneers are going to have to continue to try and dig out of the hole they’ve put themselves in.
