Baker Mayfield Doubts Fuel Bucs Spiral In QB Rankings

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have won the last four NFC South titles, and Baker Mayfield, in his two seasons, has played at a Pro Bowl level and has done it with two different offensive coordinators.

That number is now three, with Josh Grizzard, who was Liam Coen's passing game coordinator, taking over the offensive coordinator role in 2025.

So things won't be all that different, with Grizzard's ideas now being mixed into an offense that was the fourth-highest scoring unit in football last season (29.5 p/g).

But in Dan Pizzuta's quarterback rankings for 2025, Mayfield and the Buccaneers are all the way down at No. 19.

"Josh Grizzard, the team’s passing game coordinator, was promoted to offensive coordinator, so while there will be another new coordinator for Mayfield, there won’t be an entirely new system implemented," Pizzuta writes. "Still, as Mayfield’s cap hit goes from $6.9 million to $35.8 million and Chris Godwin hits free agency, this could be a much different-looking offense."

One reason for the lowly ranking is Mayfield's cap hit, but there can be no denying that he's played like a $35 million APY quarterback over the past two seasons.

Since 2023 (the beginning of Baker's Tampa Bay tenure), he's second in the NFL for passing yards (8,544), seventh in completion percentage (67.9), first in touchdowns (69), eighth in yards per game (251.3), is seventh in passer rating (100.7), is eighth in wins (19) and has the third best touchdown to interception ratio (6.1).

That's a solid two years of work.

Plus, Godwin was mentioned as a free agent, and it can be easy to forget Mayfield hasn't had Chris since Week 7 and played 10 regular-season games without him (6-4).

So, there are reasons to doubt the Buccaneers and Mayfield in 2025, but a body of work suggests that those doubts might not quite be justified.