Baker Mayfield once was one of the most polarizing players in the NFL after being the top pick of the Cleveland Browns. But the former Heisman winner has a new lease on life thanks to his stellar play with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Mayfield has led the Bucs to two straight division titles (and four for the team overall) after taking over from Tom Brady. And that run of success looks set to continue with Tampa Bay already sitting at 4-1 and comfortably in the NFC South lead once again. After their tough victory in Seattle this past weekend, they may even be seen as a legitimate Super Bowl hopeful.
It wasn’t always that way with Mayfield, whose swashbuckling style on the field and brash demeanor off the field has sometimes rubbed some folks the wrong way. Just ask Odell Beckham Sr.
But the headlines about Mayfield’s lack of maturity and his status as someone who didn’t live up to his billing as the top pick in the draft after leaving Cleveland and making pit stops with the Panthers and Rams are gone. Now the headlines are about him being a possible MVP candidate.
And nobody recognizes the changing narrative around Baker Mayfield more than Baker Mayfield. During a press conference this week, Mayfield was asked about responding to a heckling Seahawks fan. And in his response, he noted that more might have been made of the encounter earlier in his career.
“I told you guys I try to not get too high and not get too low, which is something that I was not doing early in my career. Early on in my career it was ‘cocky, immature.’ Now it’s ‘moxie’ and ‘he’s a dog.’ Same s— different day,” Mayfield said. “As long as you play well, they change the narrative, but you’ve just gotta be yourself, and I’ve always been like that.”
“At the core, definitely the same. But yea, matured in different ways, not worried about things that really don’t matter. You put it in the landscape of a competitive football game in that atmosphere? That will never change,” he added to another question when asked about his growth.
Did Baker Mayfield just explain the entire sports media complex? I… think he did?
In all honesty, truer words have never been spoken. The personality traits of a player, coach, or anyone else is often judged based on whether or not they win. The same behaviors that can be grating and negative when a team is losing are all of a sudden inspiring and heroic when a team is winning. How might we view the legendary stories about Michael Jordan’s competitiveness if he would have been 0-6 in Finals?
Maybe Baker Mayfield hasn’t changed all that much from his Cleveland days, maybe it’s the media narratives that have changed to merely match the results on the field.
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