One of the most inspiring stories of the 2025 NFL season is what’s happening in Indianapolis. The Colts are undefeated, and the calm and collected man at the controls of their offense is none other than Daniel Jones, the maligned ex-New York Giants quarterback. Jones is but the latest in a growing list of recent first-round castoffs to thrive in new pastures, following Sam Darnold’s rejuvenation in 2024.
But another man is basically the face of this journeyman redemption arc. His team is also 3-0. And he’s not just riding off a three-game hot streak. He’s now deep into his third straight season as “the guy,” so natural in his role as team leader that hardly anyone still bothers to consider the depths from which he climbed.
His name is Baker Mayfield, and he’s the face of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
How, exactly, did the veteran revive his career in South Florida? Why didn’t he crash and burn like so many other highly touted prospects tossed around the merciless NFL? And perhaps most importantly, why is he currently a full tier or two above similar comeback stories like Darnold and Jones?
We might first recall how damaged Mayfield appeared at the dawn of his Buccaneers tenure in 2023. Tom Brady, the most accomplished quarterback in NFL history, had just retired for a second time, leaving Tampa Bay to take its lumps after a rapid-fire Super Bowl window. Rather than pursue a proven name with more experience (i.e., Derek Carr) or playoff seasoning (i.e. Jimmy Garoppolo), the Bucs spent a whopping $4 million to add Mayfield on a one-year prove-it deal.
He wasn’t branded the face of the team as much as the face of a reluctant resorting. Head coach Todd Bowles didn’t name him the starter until late August, after a summer competition with backup holdover Kyle Trask. Plenty of well-minded folks kept waiting for the Bucs to make a last-minute addition to the room — someone, anyone, to uplift one of the most worrisome quarterback rooms in the league. And it’s no wonder; Mayfield was joining his fourth team in just three years, fresh off:
an unceremonious exit from the Cleveland Browns, who granted Mayfield’s request to be released after acquiring Deshaun Watson via trade;
a seven-game stint with the Carolina Panthers, in which he went just 1-5 as a starter before injuries paved the way for Darnold and P.J. Walker to claim his job;
a five-game pit stop with the Los Angeles Rams, in which he went 1-3 as an emergency starter in place of the injured Matthew Stafford.
In retrospect, we can see that the last stop really was a launching pad for Mayfield. He later admitted as much, suggesting the whirlwind relocation to L.A. — a genuine contender with proven leadership in head coach Sean McVay — helped make football fun again. (This might’ve been a similar experience for Carson Wentz, who parlayed his own Rams gig into a job with the Kansas City Chiefs and, now, a starting opportunity with the Minnesota Vikings.) But that can’t be it. After all, why didn’t John Wolford or any other ho-hum Rams project go on to become a $100 million starter?
The fire has been there from the start
Maybe because Mayfield always had this in him. One thing no one ever questioned about Baker — in Cleveland, in Carolina, wherever — was his tenacity. There were the viral clips of him headbutting teammates … without a helmet. There were lasting memories of his controversially spunky celebrations at the college level. His NFL Media scouting report began by citing his “fiery demeanor” and tendency to play with a “massive chip on his shoulder.” Whereas some first-round castoffs, like Darnold, endured bouts of skittishness (and are still working to shed that reputation), Mayfield was always borderline unhinged. A truly edgy competitor, he was practically wired to endure bouncing from team to team.
Nothing, by the way, lets you play with a chip on your shoulder — loose and free and determined to leave it all on the field — like getting zero respect as a trial-run replacement of Tom Brady. Helping his cause: Mayfield entered the NFL with top-level traits. He was literally a No. 1 overall draft pick. He set a rookie record for touchdown passes (27) in Cleveland, of all places. He led a playoff win in Year 3 against Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers. In other words, his early-career hiccups were almost certainly not for a lack of starting-caliber gifts and grit, but rather a lack of stable support. Ironically, the Browns’ souring on Mayfield came in part because he struggled while fighting through a bad shoulder for them.
NFL Week 4 Power Rankings: Buccaneers riding high with clutch Baker Mayfield at the wheel
Pete Prisco
Tampa Bay finally offered stability
On the contrary, the Buccaneers provided a much more functional environment than the one Mayfield endured in both Cleveland and Carolina, arguably the NFL’s two biggest magnets for organizational turnover. Brady’s influence had helped reshape the facilities, the staff, the locker room into a winning posture. Bowles had inherited a title-contending staff from Bruce Arians, then bolstered it with his own hires, like future coordinators-turned-head coaches Dave Canales and Liam Coen. Both Canales and Coen helped unlock a quicker-strike version of Mayfield’s game, speeding up his passing clock.
The result? The most encouraging and progressively promising stretch of football in Mayfield’s NFL career. His 2023 debut was solid, if unspectacular, with 28 touchdown strikes and a hard-fought 9-8 finish to sneak into the playoffs. His 2024 was a coming-out party, with 4,500 yards and 41 scores through the air. This year, during the Bucs’ 3-0 start, he’s been even more protective of the ball, with six touchdowns to zero picks, while embracing his mobility. After rushing for a career-high 378 yards in 2024, he’s already on pace for close to 700 yards in 2025, averaging almost 10 yards per scramble as a rugged chain-mover.
Baker Mayfield’s stat progression with Bucs
SeasonCmp%Pass yardsTDINTQBRRush yards202364.34,044281055.1163202471.44,500411658.43782025*61.66156072.9116
*2025 stats through Week 3
The X factor? Big-game showcases
The best part about Mayfield’s emergence? It’s not a case of empty stats, which could fairly be assigned to seemingly superior talents like Dak Prescott; in nearly a decade of starting for the Dallas Cowboys, Prescott has led the same amount of playoff wins (two) as Mayfield. No, this doesn’t mean Mayfield is without flaws. Par for the course with his personality, he can be borderline reckless with both the ball and his body, throwing double-digit picks in five of his seven full seasons.
But Mayfield often offsets his aggression with situational bravado and underrated precision. Accordingly, he ranks second among all quarterbacks who began play in 2018 or later in game-winning drives (15), behind only reigning MVP Josh Allen. And get this: Of his 13 career fourth-quarter comebacks, six of them — or almost half — have come in Tampa Bay alone.
The numbers and the eye test align: Mayfield’s time with the Buccaneers has been a wholehearted showcase of his gutsiest leadership. He’s only ever had a winning record as Tampa Bay’s starter. In two-plus years running the show, he’s got two division titles and two playoff appearances and counting. And he’s been capital-E elite in the games that matter most, not only making it to the dance while missing fellow starters like Chris Godwin and Tristan Wirfs for extended stretches, but seizing hold of that stage.
Whether routing the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023, or going blow for blow with the Detroit Lions a week later, or nearly knocking off Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders in 2024, he’s not yet failed to show up when given the chance at playoff football for the Bucs. His 105.9 career postseason passer rating ranks No. 1 among all active starters. He also ranks fourth in yards per attempt (8.1). If these marks, and this year’s instant chemistry with new faces like Emeka Egbuka, are any indication, then it’s really a matter of when, not if, Mayfield will have the Buccaneers back on the doorstep of a championship bid.
It’s fitting he gets to try to remain one of the NFL’s last undefeated teams in Week 4 against the Eagles, a familiar NFC foe; Mayfield is 3-1 against the Birds in his career, including playoffs, with 684 yards, five touchdowns and zero picks in his last two matchups of the series. If anyone can dethrone the reigning Super Bowl champs, it’s probably his Bucs.
And if not? If, somehow, Tampa Bay can’t stay competitive, whether in Week 4 or down the stretch in 2025, you can at least bet he’ll go down swinging. For this is no ordinary journeyman quarterback. It’s a franchise quarterback who just took some detours to get here.