Noted Baker Mayfield hater now sings different tune.
In a certain way, Joe thinks notorious windsock Colin Cowherd was imitating former Bucs guard Ian Beckles.
Beckles had a schtick. It was rooted in honest belief but it became schtick. The Bucs always had a defensive player who Beckles hated and the popular local sports talk personality would tee off on the guy relentlessly whenever he got on the mic.
First it was Barrett Ruud and then it was Gaines Adams and then it was Gerald McCoy and after a two-year break, it was Joe Tryon-Shoyinka.
Beckles wasn’t wrong — he swears he never said GMC was a bad player, just that GMC was not a difference maker — but his lets-pick-a-player-to-beat-up-on-until-he-leaves act became schtick. That’s what Beckles is known for, maybe more than his actual playing days with the Bucs.
Joe is confident that’s what Cowherd is doing with Mayfield. Cowherd, who seems to revel in the fact that the guy is often wrong and regularly changes his tune about something every couple of weeks because it’s “interesting,” is now defending Mayfield.
For years Cowherd clobbered Mayfield going so far as to holler on the air that Mayfield needs to retire and take up college football broadcasting.
But once Mayfield came to the Bucs, all of a sudden Cowherd changed his tune. How much? Consider the following:
Cowherd said on his nationally-broadcast radio show this week that the Bucs need to cough up money and make Mayfield happy. Why?
Because of KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
“Listen, you need to pay Baker,” Cowherd said. “You don’t know if Todd Bowles is going to be around long. You’re shuffling through offensive coordinators, you just lost Mike Evans.
“You need to pay Baker. Oh yeah, you [may] have to pay him a little more than you want. But Baker Mayfield’s good enough to win a division, yeah.”
That’s just it: The fans who holler for the Bucs not to pay Mayfield think winning a landfill of a division like the NFC South is Mayfield’s ceiling.
Joe thought it was interesting — not to use a Cowherd copout — that Bowles’ hot seat (?) status is the reason to pay Mayfield. One might think it would be time to hold back on paying Mayfield, thinking a new coach may not want him.
But perhaps Cowherd is thinking the opposite: That having Mayfield will lure in a better offensive coach if Team Glazer decides to make a move come January?