It’s well-known that going into the 2026 season, it’s an enormous 12 months for Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield. He’s on the ultimate 12 months of his deal, so rather a lot is on the road from that standpoint, however there’s extra to it as nicely. Mayfield is a passionate participant who absolutely has a nasty style in his mouth with how the Bucs did not miss the postseason for the primary time since Mayfield got here to Tampa Bay.
Baker Mayfield By The Years With The Bucs
Exterior of the wins and losses within the three seasons that Mayfield has been with the Bucs, he’s had strong performances statistically with the offense. His 2023 season was good as he recorded 4,044 yards with 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. The 2024 season might be most remembered because it was nice with 10 wins, coinciding with one of the best 12 months of his profession.
Mayfield was unimaginable, throwing for 4,500 yards with a completion share of 71.4 and an astounding 41 touchdowns. The one knock towards his stellar season was throwing 16 interceptions, the second-highest of his profession, which was tied for the league lead with Atlanta’s Kirk Cousins.
Mayfield even acknowledged going into the 2025 season that one of many issues he was engaged on was to restrict these interceptions to maintain the ball with Tampa Bay’s gifted offense. Whereas he achieved this by throwing solely 11 interceptions, Mayfield additionally had six interceptions that had been dropped and 20 throws on the season that had been thought of turnover-worthy.
Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photograph by: USA At the moment
Moreover, his manufacturing was common total, and technically his worst as a Bucs quarterback. Mayfield’s completion share dropped all the way in which to 63.2 whereas his yardage fell to three,693 yards together with 26 landing passes. All had been the bottom in his Bucs tenure.
However 2026 is a brand new 12 months for Mayfield.
The offense might be presumably more healthy, particularly on the offensive line. He has new weapons on this group with operating again Kenneth Gainwell and rookie receiver Ted Hurst. Plus, he’s working with a brand new offensive coordinator in Zac Robinson, whom Mayfield does know from his time with the Rams on the finish of the 2022 season.
A part of the concept with bringing Robinson to the Bucs is to attempt to recapture the greatness that was the Bucs offense from 2024 when Liam Coen was offensive coordinator. Coen and Robinson had been coaches collectively in Los Angeles and are nice associates off the sphere that discuss on a regular basis.
Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photograph by: IMAGN Photos
If the Bucs are capable of recapture that with Robinson and Mayfield, it might make the Bucs a title contender as soon as once more. However would that imply Mayfield’s interception numbers would go up, too? It’s a good tradeoff if the offense goes to common 30 factors per sport, although extra turnovers might be one results of it.
PFF Predicts Extra Picks For Baker Mayfield
In an article from Mark Chichester of Professional Soccer Focus, Chichester writes that Baker Mayfield is a candidate for a quarterback that’s more likely to throw extra interceptions this upcoming season. There have been eight quarterbacks talked about, together with Mayfield. That is what was mentioned:
“Few quarterbacks on this dataset illustrate the volatility of interception luck extra clearly than Mayfield. In 2019 with Cleveland, he completed because the second-unluckiest quarterback in soccer, with a net-luck determine of -8.1, throwing 21 interceptions on a passing profile the mannequin projected to be nearer to 13. Six years later, the variance swung dramatically in the wrong way. Mayfield’s 2025 season ranked seventh among the many luckiest quarterback seasons within the league, fueled by a turnover-worthy-throw-to-interception conversion charge of simply 25.0% on 20 turnover-worthy throws. Defenders dropped six further would-be interceptions, and Mayfield completed with 11 interceptions regardless of league-average outcomes projecting nearer to 14.
“The year-over-year swing was especially dramatic. Mayfield’s turnover-worthy-throw-to-interception conversion rate fell from 61.1% in 2024 to 25.0% in 2025, a drop of 36.1 percentage points that ranks among the 15 largest single-season swings in the entire dataset.”
Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photograph by: Cliff Welch/PR
There are various elements season to season that may account for numbers rising and falling. Extra interceptions for Mayfield doesn’t essentially imply that the group received’t achieve success, nevertheless it’s clearly a notion that no Bucs followers wish to hear. What would possibly modify these numbers as nicely is who impactful the Bucs run sport might be this season. They’ll have a completely wholesome offensive line, a more healthy Bucky Irving, plus Kenneth Gainwell within the fold to enhance the bottom sport. This might skew Mayfield’s passing numbers, too.
It’s exhausting to imagine this might be Mayfield’s final 12 months with the Bucs regardless of his contract being up. Each he and the group have expressed curiosity in a contract extension previous to the 2027 offseason. Whether or not that extension is available in August earlier than the season or after the season stays to be seen.
The one factor we do know is that there needs to be some very entertaining soccer from Mayfield and the Bucs offense this season.
