Baker Mayfield, the quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, was involved in a horrific accident that resulted in…
The critics shouted out when quarterback Baker Mayfield was signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2023. They reasoned that by signing Mayfield, the team would likely find itself in the NFL Draft purgatory, selected too high to select a new franchise leader but too low to have a significant impact overall.
Proponents of the Buccaneers’ decision claimed that since the team still had receivers like Chris Godwin and Mike Evans on the roster, they had to take all necessary steps to maintain their competitiveness in the interim until a long-term answer could be discovered.
When the move was made, not many people were saying, “Tampa Bay is signing its franchise future in Mayfield.” However, all of that has shifted this offseason, to the point that getting Evans into a new contract this offseason may not have been as important as re-signing Mayfield.
On his most recent show, Eisen wondered, “At some point, will a team just say, ‘I know we used you a high draft position on you at some point, but we’re going back in the draft,’ instead of paying a quarterback what the market price is—40 million, 45 million—llike the (New York) Giants paid Daniel Jones, and you’re still wondering if he’s the guy or not?” “Much as they draft running backs, we’re going to draft another one. similar to what the Giants did recently with Saquan Barkley. We’ll mail it to you at a different address. You can be paid by someone else. However, we will return to the draft pool to select wide receivers, cornerbacks, and running backs. Will the quarterback position ever be handled that way by anyone?”
Eisen notes that although it hasn’t happened yet, given the recent drafted quarterback tendency of “chewing ’em up and spitting ’em out,” he believes we’re getting closer to seeing an NFL team take such action.
Eisen went on, “We’re seeing it again where Baker Mayfield has now turned around.” “He performed better than the guy who got the market deal in Daniel Jones, and the Bucs have now compensated him.”
Nor is Mayfield alone himself. Mayfield is really simply the most recent of many highly anticipated and drafted quarterbacks who flamed out at first before returning to have successful careers. Quarterbacks Jared Goff of the Detroit Lions and Geno Smith of the Seattle Seahawks are on that list.