Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ most underrated player: QB Baker Mayfield

   

Whether you think Baker Mayfield is underrated or not depends largely on whether you think he’s a random play generator without the required consistency to succeed at a high level in the NFL.

 Mayfield did all he could to bust that myth in 2023 for the Buccaneers, completing 412 passes on 643 attempts for 4,731 yards, 34 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and a passer rating of 96.0. He completed 26 of 84 deep passes for 835 yards, 11 touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 89.0. Moreover, Mayfield proved quite efficient in the area of the field where efficiency is most important.

Mayfield’s 2023 season prodded the Bucs to give him a new three-year, $100 million contract with $50 million guaranteed, which may be about what (or more than) he’d get anywhere given his career oeuvre. But I still think he’s undersold as a quarterback who can play among the top half of the players at his position.