Buccaneers HC Todd Bowles discusses Baker Mayfield replacing Tom Brady

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles spoke with reporters on Wednesday about quarterback Baker Mayfield signing a one-year "prove it" contract this past offseason to replace living legend Tom Brady. 

"Anybody who comes after Tom, if you play well you're going to be talked about in a good category — not Tom's category, but a good category," Bowles said while discussing what Mayfield has offered the Buccaneers, per the club's website. "He's a legend, he'll go down in the Hall of Fame. If you play badly, 'Well, he's not Tom.' [Mayfield] was in a lose-lose [situation] from a fan-ballot standpoint to begin with and he didn't try to win the fan ballot. He just put his head down and he worked and he won the team over, which is what was great about it." 

Brady, of course, guided the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl championships from 2000-19 season before he closed his first campaign with the Buccaneers by earning a seventh career championship ring in February 2021. 

TB12 arguably should've won the Most Valuable Player Award for the 2021 season, but multiple analysts recently mentioned they feel Mayfield has played better for the 2023 Bucs than Brady did with the 2022 edition of the club. 

Specifically, John Romano of the Tampa Bay Times noted for a piece published Tuesday that Mayfield is responsible for "a higher average gain per pass attempt, a higher touchdown percentage and passer rating" than what Brady posted during what became his final season. 

Mayfield insisted shortly after he signed with the Buccaneers that he was "not going to try to be Tom" and instead was "going to be me." Bowles praised the 28-year-old on Wednesday for never "trying to be Tom" over the past nine months. 

"He's doing things his way and we're doing things our way," Bowles added about Mayfield. "It's not as pretty as when Tom was here, but we're scrappy and we're pulling them out and we're getting things done."

Mayfield has the 7-7 Buccaneers atop the NFC South standings via a tiebreaker advantage Tampa Bay holds over the 7-7 New Orleans Saints. 

While Mayfield has made it known he wants to sign a second contract with the Bucs, he'll first look to lead the team to a home win over the 8-6 Jacksonville Jaguars this coming Sunday afternoon.