Bucs'' 'Grown-Up' Baker Mayfield NFL-Wide View Revealed
The list of people jumping on the Baker Mayfield bandwagon continues to grow, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback enjoying the best two-year spell of his career.
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Entering the 2025 season, Mayfield and the Buccaneers have genuine Super Bowl intentions, something we haven't seen in his career up until now.
For Mayfield, he has had his skeptics all throughout his career, and even last season, en route to throwing for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns (16 interceptions), some think he is about to fall off the proverbial cliff.
But NFL analyst Greg Cosell, when speaking on the Ross Tucker podcast, has given Baker his flowers.
"Baker Mayfield, around the league, is highly, highly respected," Cosell said. "He is a really good thrower of the football, and I'm not sure people think about that with Baker Mayfield, but he is a really, really good thrower of the football. He's grown up. He's aggressive, so every once in a while, he'll make a play that's viewed as reckless, but he's become a very good quarterback, and I think it's important to acknowledge that."
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) tries to avoid a tackle by Denver Broncos linebacker Nik Bonitto (15).Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
Armed with potentially the best group of weapons of his career in Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Jalen McMillan, Emeka Egbuka, Cade Otton, and running backs Bucky Irving and Rachaad White, Mayfield has pressure to get it done in 2025.
We believe the Buccaneers are favorites for the NFC South (again), but the franchise is now at a stage of its development where simply winning the division isn't enough.
They want playoff wins now.
After losing to Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders at home in the playoffs last year, Tampa Bay will no doubt be looking at going deeper in the postseason in 2025.
With a "grown-up" Mayfield leading the charge.
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Related: 'He's Still Got That Hunger!' Buccaneers' Yaya Diaby Praises Newcomer Haason Reddick
Related: Buccaneers Look to Running Back as Most Promising Building Block
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 7, 2025, where it first appeared.
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