Baker Mayfield doubles down on his Saints hate and reveals exactly why he dislikes them

Anyone who has watched these games dating back almost seven years knows the matchup is basically the equivalent of a powder keg. There's the P.J. Williams hit on Chris Godwin Jr. back in 2021, the multiple Mike Evans-Marshon Lattimore scuffles that include Evans shoving him from behind in one instance, and plenty more. A lot of other players still remain on both sides and the bad blood is still there, which should make for an interesting reunion.

Several of the same players remain but it's a new system for the Saints defense

The Saints ran Dennis Allen's system for nearly a decade. Now that he's gone it's former Los Angeles Chargers head coach Brandon Staley running the show.

Staley comes from the Vic Fangio philosophy of playing "top-down" coverage, which essentially means preventing the big play. Cover 3 has been Staley's go-to in 2025, with Cover 1, or man coverage, as the No. 2. Cover 3 is especially built for preventing the big play, as both outside corners "bail" with their assignments and the safety plays the deep middle with a lean toward the passing strength of the formation.

Per Sumer Sports, Mayfield has completed 65.7% of his passes and has two touchdowns and no picks on 78 dropbacks against Cover 3. He averages 0.06 EPA per play, which ranks 28th out of 40 eligible quarterbacks. The league average is 0.19 EPA per play.

"Personnel-wise, being familiar with them, that does give you a little bit of a head start on the preparation," said Mayfield. "Then just understanding the system Brandon Staley calls and knowing = it's similar to a Vic Fangio-type system. (It's a) top-down defense - they don't like to get shots over their head. So yeah, looking at it like that, trying to relate [to] it as much as you can. But then also looking at specifically, what are they doing, and our guys will be able to handle that."

Division games are never easy. You have to throw out the records even though the Bucs have won five of the last six matchups. And considering both teams know each other so well, it won't be surprise if this is more of a struggle than people assume going in.

Either way, Mayfield just made the Saints pay even closer attention to him than they already were and I'm sure we'll see some kind of response on the field -from both sides- once things kick off on Sunday.