Before the 2023 season the Buccaneers took a chance on Baker Mayfield to be the quarterback who would follow Tom Brady which was a big gamble given that he played for Cleveland, Carolina, and Los Angeles in one year. Mayfield rewarded the Buccaneers by leading them to their third straight NFC South title, a playoff win over Philadelphia, and making the Pro Bowl.
On Wednesday Mayfield inked a new three-year deal worth more than 100 million dollars to make the Bucs his team and the Tampa Bay area both professionally and personally. Mayfield rejuvenated his career with the Buccaneers in 2023 and finished third in the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year voting. He set career highs with 4,044 passing yards and 28 touchdown passes while throwing only 10 interceptions and compiling a 94.6 passer rating.
Mayfield was the first visiting quarterback in the history of Lambeau Field to earn a perfect 158.3 passer rating. He became the first quarterback in team history to record a postseason game with 300-plus passing yards and three or more touchdowns, accomplishing the feat in both playoff contests. In the postseason, Mayfield was the league’s leading passer through the Divisional Round, completing 48-of-77 passes (62.3%) for 686 yards and six touchdowns compared to two interceptions for a passer rating of 106.3. Mayfield’s 106.3 passer rating represents the highest postseason mark by a quarterback in franchise history, with his six passing touchdowns ranking second.
(Opening Statement)
Jason Licht: “Obviously, another big day for us here in the organization, but it’s a huge day for Emily and Baker [Mayfield] and we’re extremely excited for both parties for this thing. A year ago at the combine – starting around the combine – Todd [Bowles] was hitting me up with a text, a call, or a ‘Come down to my office,’ at least twice a day, asking me, ‘When are we getting ‘Bake?’” I said, ‘Well, there are some rules here, but we’ll do the best we can’ [laughs]. He had a lot of confidence in him. He developed a relationship with him when he was with the [New York] Jets in the 2018 draft. We had Baker as our No. 1 quarterback in that draft on our rankings, so we had a lot of confidence in him – but nobody had more confidence than Baker. It was about a year ago today – I don’t know if it’s exactly to the day – when I called him to congratulate him. You could feel the confidence [and] that he was ready to come in here and take advantage of the situation. He had us circled as the best place to go and we had him circled as the best player to come and follow the legend, Tom Brady. Not many quarterbacks would have the confidence to do that, but Baker certainly did. We love his leadership – we love his ability on the field – but his leadership, his ability to rally the team, the city, the fanbase has been surreal.”
(Opening Statement)
Baker Mayfield: “I appreciate it. I’ve obviously got to thank the Glazer family and all the front office guys, my agent, everybody that worked on this to get this done. As Jason [Licht] mentioned last year and truly the last few years of my career, a lot of ups and downs. To be able to have Emily [Mayfield] by my side the whole time and see it through, and have the opportunity to come here [to] a place that knows how to win from the top down – they do it well, from the people that I’ve talked to before even getting here. None of those words were a lie. Obviously, I knew Coach [Todd] Bowles coming into it, I got to know Jason pretty quickly, and just knowing the staff and the key pieces that they had here were obviously a good look to try and sign here and know I have a chance to play and prove myself. And, just the opportunity – God had a plan for me and I saw it through. And the group we had, as well, made it so special last year – made it a big reason why I wanted to come back here, knowing that we have a lot of the same staff coming back, key pieces… We were close. We made a good run there at the end, but I don’t think any of our guys were satisfied. It was the group that stuck together through all of the highs and lows that made it so special for us. I’m looking forward to being able to push for a deeper playoff run. Obviously, if it’s not a Super Bowl, only one team is happy in the end. That’s the goal here – to try and win a couple. I’m very thankful for this opportunity. We call Tampa home now and [we’re] obviously welcoming another key piece to our family, adding a little girl into the family here soon. [There are] a lot of exciting things for us and we’re really, really blessed and can’t say enough.”
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