Baker Mayfield's last stand

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles officially named Baker Mayfield the starting quarterback for the 2023 season. The announcement ends the battle for the No. 1 spot with Kyle Trask and starts the timer on Mayfield's last opportunity to prove he's a franchise quarterback.

Since leading the Browns to the divisional round of the 2020 playoffs, Mayfield's career has nosedived. He was infamously called out by former teammate Odell Beckham Jr.'s father for his poor performance in 2021 and was traded to the Panthers after the season.

Last year, he didn't stick in Carolina and was cut following Week 13. He fared better with the Rams but was still a shell of the quarterback who led Cleveland to the postseason.

Mayfield finished last season 201-of-335 (60 percent) for 2,163 yards, 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions in 12 games (10 starts).

In Tampa, he has the unenviable job of taking over for Tom Brady, who led the Bucs to a Super Bowl win in 2020 and consecutive division titles in 2021 and 2022. 

Despite the team declining to 8-9 last season, Tampa Bay has a lot of the same pieces that won the franchise its second Super Bowl. Most importantly for Mayfield, he has two outstanding wide receivers (Mike Evans, Chris Godwin) to utilize. 

He looked good in Week 1 of the preseason, so much so that Bowles didn't play him in Week 2. He played four series and was 8-of-9 for 63 yards with a touchdown against the Steelers.

Mayfield should benefit from working alongside offensive coordinator Dave Canales, who played a role in Geno Smith's resurgence last season as Seahawks quarterbacks coach.

As Smith famously said post-game following Seattle's Week 1 win against Denver last year, the league tried to write him off, to no avail.

Mayfield is in a similar position. 

Tampa Bay (+1000) has the longest odds of winning the division (per Oddschecker) and the team has serious questions about its run production as well as offensive line play.

The Bucs had the league's worst rushing attack last season and haven't shown any improvement so far during the preseason. Through two games, Tampa Bay has 58 rush attempts for 138 yards, 2.4 yards per attempt.

Quarterbacks Kyle Trask and John Wolford have been sacked seven times. Last year, the line struggled to protect Brady, most notably in Tampa's wildcard loss to Dallas when Brady was pressured on 26.5 percent of his dropbacks despite the Cowboys only blitzing on six (8.8 percent) of Brady's dropbacks. (h/t Pro Football Focus)

Per data from PFF, Mayfield was pressured on 117 dropbacks last season and was 32-of-71 (45.1 percent) for 449 yards, three touchdowns and three interceptions with 36 sacks. Among quarterbacks with at least 100 dropbacks in 2022, his sack rate (30.8 percent) was the highest in the league despite Mayfield averaging the fourth-most time to throw (3.92 seconds) when pressured.   Not only is Mayfield trying to keep the Bucs atop the NFC South but he's also playing for his future as a starter in the league. That's a lot to put on Mayfield's plate, not that it's foreign to him. He's familiar with pressure. This season, however, he'll have to be a lot better under it.