There’s rancor within JoeBucsFan.com headquarters.
Good thing the only things being thrown around the office are empty beer cans and wadded-up used Jimmy John’s bags.
One of the Joes strongly advocates signing Baker Mayfield, 31, to an extension ASAP. As in yesterday.
The other Joe is like, “Whoa, hold up. Let’s see how this season plays out.”
It seems Pat Donovan is in the wait-and-see camp.
Donovan, who co-hosts “The Pat and Aaron Show” heard weekday mornings on WDAE-AM 620/WDAE-FM 95.7, stated he hasn’t seen enough from Mayfield to believe he can lead the Bucs to a Super Bowl.
Donovan wants to be a believer but he’s not there. Yet.
“To me, Baker hasn’t proven that he will lift everyone up around him when things aren’t going well, right?” Donovan began. “When things are going well, he’s damn near elite.
“But when they’re not, he makes mistakes, and he sometimes tries too hard to make plays and holds on to the ball too long and turns the ball over. And those are all things you can’t overcome if the things around you aren’t going that well.”
While the Joe typing here is lockstep with Donovan in favor of seeing how this season unfolds before putting a contract in front of Mayfield, Joe has a hard time agreeing that Mayfield can’t lift those around him.
Joe points to two wins last year.
Against San Francisco, Mayfield had little help. No Mike Evans. No Chris Godwin. No Emeka Egbuka for half the game. No Bucky Irving.
Mayfield put the Bucs on his back and absolutely willed that team to win. It wasn’t like Mayfield and the Bucs beat the sad sack Cardinals; it was the 49ers, one of the best teams in the league.
The prior week at Seattle was almost as impressive. The Bucs were also short-handed. No Evans. No Bucky. Down Luke Goedeke and Cody Mauch. Godwin limited. Mayfield had a sensational game.
Mayfield was 29 of 33 with a pair of touchdown throws, along with a sweet 27-yard pass rolling to his left to Cade Otton. Mayfield sliced up an excellent defense that became Super Bowl champs.
Problem was, the Bucs needed to see more of that after the bye and they did not. Just win one more game to get into the playoffs. It didn’t happen, which created a massive question mark for “this Joe.”
Top-shelf quarterbacks don’t lose seven of their final nine games to fall out of playoff contention, certainly not when an offense actually gets healthy. In December, the Bucs got quality stars like Evans, Godwin and Bucky back healthy.
And high-end quarterbacks certainly do not lose a critical game like the Bucs did to the tanking Dolphins with a seventh-round pick of a quarterback making his second NFL start. And that same rookie, Quinn Ewers, went toe-to-toe with Mayfield without a turnover; Mayfield had three, including two picks. (Imagine the outcry if that was America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston?)
After the season, Lavonte David claimed Mayfield was beat to hell. If that’s accurate, and Joe has zero reason to doubt David, then the Bucs did Mayfield (and the team) zero favors in not sitting him down to get him healthy.
If the team didn’t trust backup quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, then why the hell was he even on the roster?
But following that awful stretch after the bye, “this Joe” has to see if Mayfield bounces back. With the 2027 draft expected to be loaded with top-shelf quarterbacks, does the team really want to hitch its wagon to a quarterback who may have already peaked?
@957wdae Should the Bucs sign Baker right now or after the season? #Bucs #WeAreTheKrewe @PatandAaron @PatDonovanRadio ♬ original sound – 957wdae