Baker Mayfield looks to be on the verge of losing a likely starting role with a third NFL team this summer.
When Baker Mayfield entered the league as the top overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft there were many who doubted he would be able to live up to the lofty aspirations of being the No. 1 pick. While he was a Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma and had the leadership qualities and grit that many talent evaluators drool over, there were many questions about if he truly had the football talent to be an elite quarterback.
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After four frustrating seasons with the Cleveland Browns, where he mostly led under .500 teams and clashed with teammates, the organization decided he just wasn’t the player they hoped for and instead traded for a rival teams franchise quarterback.
With a starting role no longer available in Cleveland and no desire to be backup, Mayfield was traded to the Carolina Panthers and given a second chance to be a starter in 2022. Unfortunately, his 10-game stint with Carolina ended up being even worse than his time in Ohio and he was eventually benched and cut by the organization.
Baker Mayfield quickly losing ground in Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB competition
At the tail end of the season, he was picked up by the Los Angeles Rams and was able to salvage some value in four starts and showed enough that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers decided to sign him in NFL free agency this spring. With the team in the midst of a transition away from retired legend Tom Brady, and no obvious heir apparent waiting in the wings, Baker Mayfield was expected to be the Bucs’ starting QB in Week 1.
Well, that may no longer be a guarantee. On Tuesday, new Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dave Canales opened the door to third-year quarterback Kyle Trask possibly winning the job in training camp when he admitted that the QB competition this summer has “absolutely” tightened in the last week.
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“First couple of days, I think the experience that Baker brings — just playing in games, being in camps, going through installs — you could see where the offense was jelling really well,” Canales said Tuesday at AdventHealth Training Center. “The timing of the snaps and all that is really critical for us, so probably a little bit of an edge for Baker to start off, just in terms of the smoothness of the offense.
- Baker Mayfield career stats: 31-38 record, 16,288 passing yards,102 TD, 64 INT, 86.5 passer rating
“But it just took a couple of days for Kyle to really settle in,” he added “and then what we saw is, the last two practices Kyle really showed what he can do: stretching the field with his arm, getting the ball out quickly, making decisions.”
That is not a good sign for Baker Mayfield considering his massive experience and pedigree advantage over Trask. Tampa took the former Florida Gators QB with the 64th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. He only threw nine passes in a regular season game in that time and was never seriously considered the organization’s future franchise quarterback since being drafted two years ago.