If you had Baker Mayfield as the leading contender for NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year in 2023, raise your hand.
Quietly, Mayfield has become one of the best stories to develop through the first quarter of this NFL season.
The quarterback, who won the Heisman Trophy in 2018 and was the No. 1-overall draft pick by the Browns, has resurrected not only his enigmatic career, but also the Tom Brady-less Buccaneers, his fourth team in six seasons.
That makes the matchup Sunday between the Bucs (3-1) and Lions (4-1) in Tampa particularly intriguing, because it pits Mayfield against Detroit quarterback Jared Goff, a former No. 1-overall pick who also needed a change of scenery to resurrect his career.
Through four games, the 28-year-old Mayfield has completed 69.9 percent of his passes, has thrown for 882 yards with seven touchdowns and just two interceptions, and he has endeared himself to the Tampa Bay fans who expected significant growing pains in the team’s first season without Brady.
“Baker is tough, he fits in here, he understands the offense very well,” Bucs head coach Todd Bowles told reporters. “The guys love to play for him. He works for us.”
On the other side of the ball will be Goff, who was the top pick by the Rams in the 2016. He’s in his third year with the Lions, who’ve won six of their past seven road games dating to last season and are trying to go 5-1 for the first time since 2011.
Under the guidance of Goff, the Lions are one of the league’s highest scoring teams. They are averaging 29.6 points and are in the midst of a team-record stretch of 14 consecutive games in which they have scored 20 or more points. Goff leads the NFL with 23 completions of 20-plus yards.
“He is the engine that makes it go over there,’’ Bowles said this week of Goff. “He’s not turning the ball over, throwing touchdowns, commanding the offense. He was always very accurate. He is a competitor. He is playing great for them.”
Mayfield relates to Goff.
“Coming from somebody that needed a fresh start, as well, Jared is a stud,’’ Mayfield said. “I think he’s playing really well. You can tell his leadership and all of the [reasons] why he got chosen that high. He’s truly showing that now. Not every fit is perfect. For him, I think his confidence continued to grow, and he’s got all the tools you want — tall guy, he’s got a good arm, really, really smart. I love his game. He’s a good guy, too.”
Lions head coach Dan Campbell was equally as complimentary of Mayfield.
“He’s very competitive, like he’s always been, and he’s finding ways to make plays if it’s not there,” Campbell told reporters this week. “I think what they’re asking him to do, and the scheme really suits him well. They’re making a true commitment to the run. There’s a lot of boots that are involved, play-action pass, and when you’re playing good defense, too, man that’s right in his wheelhouse.”
Mayfield recently said the “narrative is going to flip” with the Bucs and the low expectations of the post-Brady era.
“We have to keep that mindset even more so,’’ he said. “You can’t change whether people are patting you on the back or talking trash about you.”
Speaking of trash, the Browns discarded Mayfield in favor of Deshaun Watson, to whom they gave obscene guaranteed money despite his off-the-field issues. The Browns are 2-2 with Watson reportedly cleared to play after a shoulder ailment, but opting to sit out.
Mayfield was essentially given away to Carolina for a fifth-round draft pick in the 2022 offseason. After he was waived by the Panthers in December, Mayfield had a brief stint with the Rams before he signed with the Bucs in free agency this past offseason.
Who’s having the last laugh now?
There’s an element to the Mayfield story that is similar to what Geno Smith did as a reclamation project in Seattle. Smith — after short tenures with the Giants and Chargers — in his third year in Seattle took over the starting job after Russell Wilson was shipped to Denver. Smith played well, won the Comeback Player of the Year and got a three-year contract out of his success.
For his part, Mayfield has remained much more about the team than himself, thankful for the opportunity he has been given to take advantage of the way he has.
“We’ve known all along what we have in this building,” Mayfield said. “We’ve been saying that since the offseason. I think we have a team of very, very strong-minded men. It shows the accountability within our building, knowing to do your job and not letting outside noise affect you.”
Few players in the league have been subject to more outside “noise’’ than Mayfield, who has been polarizing at times. And few seem to have thrived in it better, excelling when the odds were stacked against him.
