Helped save the Bucs.
Upon reading a story like this, it triggered Joe with vomit-induced flashbacks to 11 years ago.
This here site that Joe launched in Chucky’s last season, 2008. The site was eight-years young. It was the throes of the Lost Decade. The Bucs were in the midst of having a winless season at home.
The Bucs, with Stewart McClown at quarterback, were a godawful team run by a godawful defensive meathead and in this particular home game the Bucs were hosting a decent team in the Vikings, also run by a defensive meathead.
It was horribly boring. It was _turrible_ football. And Joe, for the only time since launching this here corner of the interwebs seriously pondered getting out of the business. Joe couldn’t fathom spending the rest of his adult life’s Sundays 25 percent of the year watching… _THAT_! Not even for money.
That’s how bad things were. That’s how badly the Bucs had sunk. That Joe was being paid to watch NFL football and still be “this close” to throwing in the towel explains how badly Joe had his fill of the tripe he was watching.
(Oddly enough, that was also the very same day and afternoon Joe decided to launch a daily post about then-Florida State quarterback, college football national champion and Heisman Trophy-winning Jameis Winston because if there was a Higher Authority, that guy would save us from ungodly boring and bad football.)
It was brutal being a Bucs fan in 2014.
Joe had this flashback upon reading a piece by Tom Blair of NFL.com who decided to list the top-five veteran quarterback additions of the past half-decade.
Of those five quarterbacks, the Bucs had two! No kidding. Tom Brady and Baker Mayfield.
> **Baker Mayfield
> _ACQUIRED:_** March 2023, via a one-year, $4 million contract.
>
> Baker Mayfield might ultimately top out at pretty good — but that’s, uh, pretty good for a quarterback who worked with three head coaches and four offensive coordinators in his first four pro seasons with the Browns, then bounced through stopgap duty with the Panthers and Rams before landing in Tampa. The Bucs provided him with the most stability and the best supporting cast of his NFL career. Mayfield rewarded them by leading a pair of consecutive playoff trips — and, maybe even more importantly, saving them from having to transition from Tom Brady to Kyle Trask.
>
> Mayfield’s initial fall from grace was so severe that he might still seem faintly like a bust, at least for a former No 1 overall pick. But over the past two seasons in Tampa, he actually played better than most QBs drafted at that slot, ranking second among No. 1 overall draft picks in yards per attempt (7.5), third in passer rating (100.7) and fourth in TD-to-INT ratio (69:26). I don’t think the lesson here is that every failed high-profile prospect can be salvaged. But Mayfield’s resurgence does suggest it is important to value — or at least consider — how the overall picture might be impacting a quarterback’s progress in a given situation, and to think about what they might need to reach their potential.
Mayfield was indeed an excellent signing, no question. Joe is confident many teams are kicking themselves in the arse for not signing Mayfield after the 2022 season.
The key here was Mayfield wanted to start — Los Angeles and Baltimore wanted him as a backup — and lo and behold, the Bucs had an opening on a playoff team to start at quarterback.
Of course, Mayfield succeeded Tom Brady, who may have been the greatest free agent quarterback signing of all time. Brady comes to town and the Bucs went from a laughingstock to a Super Bowl champion and a team to be feared.
> **Tom Brady**
> **ACQUIRED:** March 2020, via a two-year, $50 million contract.
>
> Tom Brady rocketed even further into superhuman territory by winning it all one more time and providing two more strong years after that in Tampa. This acquisition does not really have anything to teach anyone but the team that lucks into giving Patrick Mahomes (or the equivalent living legend of tomorrow) a similar last shot at another ring. Go ahead and clip this blurb out to slide into a time capsule for 2035 or so. To that future team, I will say: If a multi-time Super Bowl champion who looks capable of playing at an elite level well into his 40s wants to sign with you, _go for it_.
It’s just wild to Joe to think a little over a decade ago things were so bleak for the Bucs had damn near got out of the business. No way Joe thought at that time he’d ever see the Bucs win another Super Bowl or see the team turn into a fourpeat NFC South champion.
But that’s what happens when you make two of the best quarterback signings in the league in recent memory.
https://twitter.com/rondebarber/status/1905311513360953727