Raises teammates’ games.
Now, this is an interesting observation that Joe had never really thought of.
Yesterday Joe typed a story where he genuinely wondered if Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield was underrated. Joe based this on the fact no quarterback has thrown more touchdown passes the past two seasons than Mayfield.
If someone mentioned Pat Mahomes, you’d shrug your shoulders. If Josh Allen did this, the reaction would probably be the same. If Saint Lamar Jackson did this BSPN would go so bananas with wall-to-wall coverage you wouldn’t realize there’s this thing untold dozens of people care about called the women’s non-basketball association exists.
But Mayfield? Nah, he’s a scrub.
Armed with this same information, Tyler Sullivan of CBS made a case that Mayfield is able to raise his teammates’ production.
The Buccaneers were able to win the NFC South even after losing Chris Godwin midway through the season and also with Mike Evans missing some time due to injury. That’s a credit to Mayfield, who threw for a career-high 41 passing touchdowns this season on top of 4,500 yards passing. Mayfield got that done by helping elevate the likes of Cade Otton, Bucky Irving and Jalen McMillan.
Well, let’s think about this for a moment: Mike Evans produces year in and year out no matter who is throwing him the ball. Chris Godwin? He had his best seven-game stretch of his career with Mayfield.
When Evans and Godwin were both out, Cade Otton had his best production since the Bucs drafted him in 2022.
Rachaad White is a formidable passing target. Bucky Irving became a dangerous runner (in part, because of Mayfield’s downfield blocking). Yeah, Joe is being a bit sarcastic there.
But Sullivan might be onto something. A lot of guys the Bucs have had some of, if not all of their best games, while Mayfield is under center.
That’s a sign of a damn good quarterback: He makes his teammates better.