The Tampa Bay Buccaneers could have had some rough seasons after winning the Super Bowl in 2020. Instead, they won the NFC South for the next four years in a row.
A big part of that is general manager Jason Licht, who has drafted quite well and managed the salary cap with assistant Mike Greenberg as the Bucs navigated the fallout of the team's free agency moves and dead money after quarterback Tom Brady retired in 2022. A big part of the team's success, however, was one particular signing — quarterback Baker Mayfield, who, since signing a one-year, $4 million deal in 2023, has thrown 77 touchdowns for the Bucs and parlayed that play into a three-year, $100 million extension.
Mayfield has been the engine behind a successful post-Brady era for the Buccaneers, and Licht recently spoke to the Tampa Bay Times' Rick Stroud on his show Sports Day Tampa Bay about what went into bringing him to the Buccaneers.
"Well, yeah, luckily [Head coach Todd Bowles] wanted him," Licht said. "We didn't have any kind of fight over that because he was the one that we wanted as well. And, you know, we knew what his ceiling was. And that's pretty damn good quarterback.”
Licht explained that Mayfield chose the Bucs for the same reasons that Brady did — the culture, the organization and superstar players like Mike Evans and Chris Godwin gave Mayfield the perfect place to revive his career, and he certainly has in his past few seasons with the Bucs.
And while players like Evans and Godwin have helped Mayfield tremendously as reliable receivers, Mayfield has helped them quite a bit, too. Tampa Bay's wideouts have benefited from Mayfield's leadership and stellar play, and Licht also said that Mayfield has helped his job in bringing back those stars in free agency as well.
“And he's done, you know, obviously, has helped this big, big part in winning," Licht said. "But he's also, I don't know if, I don't know, those players love playing with them, especially receivers. Who knows if Mike would have chose to come here? Who knows if Chris would have signed back? You know, they love that guy. And, I mean, I'd love to say they want to come here because of great GM... No, it's because they want somebody that's going to help them on the field, too. So I was joking about the good GM thing. So Baker, you know, I hope Baker's here a long time.”
Mayfield, too, likely hopes he's in Tampa Bay beyond the remaining two years of his deal. Until then, he'll prepare for 2025 in hopes continuing to lead Tampa Bay's post-Brady era of success — and in hopes of taking it further.
