NFL Network’s Sara Walsh: How Baker Mayfield & 5-1 Bucs Can Get Even Better | The Rich Eisen Show

Tampa Bay at Detroit is just the biggest game of the week. And you just mentioned again Liam Cohen leaving Tampa. It is I mean just how good is Baker Mayfield, right? I mean he loses Canales then gets Cohen, has a better year now loses Cohen and is having the best year of his career. He’s unbelievable. There is this narrative we talk about, right? Consistency. And for the longest time it was like poor Baker. He doesn’t have any cons. Maybe Baker doesn’t need consistency. I mean, maybe the key to Baker is like, “Bring them in. Bring them in. Line them up and I’ll and I’ll get these guys going.” He has turned into a head coach maker. So, when I was talking to Josh Gazard, his latest offensive coordinator, right? Uh, and you know, let’s go back. So, Dave Canales is there. It’s his he gets this shot and it’s like, “Oh my gosh, he’s never been an offensive coordinator even before. How’s this going to go?” Um, he does so well. He goes to Carolina and then it’s the same story. Oh, Liam Con, now here’s your shot. This last guy, he was here for a second. Gets a head coaching job. Is the same going to happen to you? Like, haha. like that’s probably not going to happen. It happens. And so then Grisard before the season started, I go, “Hey man, like no pressure, but this is kind of awkward if you don’t get a head coaching job next year, right?” Like it’s a little bit awkward if he doesn’t. But I I have to say I think he is doing by far and away the best job of the three. And this is no disrespect to Dave or Liam, but neither one of them had to deal with the injury situation that they are dealing with in Tampa. And I know every team’s going to say they’re injured. It has been monstrous. I mean, they started the year the line complete disarray. They’re signing practice squad guys from their practice squad from other practice squad guys to to play line. And then you take out, if you look out a week ago, no Mike Evans, no Chris Godwin, now no Acha Ibuka who’s come out of, well, I don’t want to say nowhere. He’s their first round pick, but he’s sort of taken over. No Bucky Irving. They started the year without these are like, let’s just go down the list of stars that they have all out and they find a way every week. I mean, in fairness, every week I’m like, there’s no way. How are they going to pull this out? And it’s Baker. I mean, that is Baker putting the team on his back, making receivers that you didn’t even hear of two days prior touchdown makers. Well, I mean, some of these third downs that that Baker’s picking up with his legs is kind of the personification of what you just said. Like, every single week, you think, how are they going to get out of this? And it’s the same thing about these plays of week two against the Texans last week, third and 14. How’s he going to get out of this? And he does. And he just keeps leading everybody down the field. And interesting how you said we you also just said Sarah I got Sarah Walsh here NFL networks Sarah Walsh on the Rich Eisen show. Interesting that you just said what you just said that um that he he’s a coach maker and that like honestly I but he used to be a coach killer like that was his that was his reputation that he’s brash. He’s obnoxious. He’s immature. Now as he was even joking about from the podium a couple weeks ago now I’ve got Moxy. Now I’ve got an edge dog in me and now I got a dog in me and he’s now a coach. He But he hasn’t done you keep on mentioning like what is the constant? He’s the constant. He is the constant. We’re just all changing around him and thankfully for him the circumstances of his career have changed. I got to tell you I did I think his first start in Cleveland years ago and I remember he came into the production meeting and this idea this idea that he was cocky and he was this I mean he has a swagger about him. I always took my meetings with him. I’m like, “Ah, I like this.” Like, “This is the guy I would want.” Right. I didn’t take I never took it the way like I’m sure there’s certain things in Baker’s career he’d be like, “Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have done that.” But he owns it. He’s never shied away from it. He is the when you talk about people being like phony or fraudulent. He is the most real person. Like, I mean, he is who he is and and he doesn’t try to be somebody he’s not. And I just remember in Cleveland and I was at this game and and he wins this game and he just has this energy. He fires up people around him. that narrative. I can tell you when he got to Tampa that this guy was cocky and where they loved him the second he walked in that locker room because he the way he takes care of people around him and I don’t even mean just like players. I mean people on staff um I mean PR folks. He looks out for everybody around him and and makes people better around him and and that comes from inside that building. That comes from things I’ve observed. So it’s not surprising that he has he is doing what he’s doing now. some of the plays. I mean, it’s just it’s snowballing to the to the point that it’s now ridiculous. Like, you just alluded I mean, there was one where he should have been sacked. He had multiple the play’s over and it’s not. But I can’t tell you when this guy and it happened a couple times last year when this guy gets up and kind of gives somebody a shove or or lowers his hel like and he shouldn’t, right? Like puts his shoulder pads down and they know he shouldn’t do it and they don’t want him to do it. But what that does to that stadium there and to the guys around him, uh, it is a game changer. It is motivationally a gamecher and that’s what he does and you’re just seeing they’ve always been close but they’re closing out anything that’s close. Yeah. And this weekend’s again Monday night game um on on ESPN and ABC um those two games are are pretty huge. Houston at Seattle and the one that I’m referring to and I if the Bucks pull this one off and go to six and one with wins um against everybody but Philadelphia, you know what I mean? and and so they would be able to say, “Okay, we’ve beaten Atlanta, uh we’ve beaten Seattle, we’ve beaten San Francisco, and we’ve beaten Detroit.” Those are teams that they’re going to maybe have to face off, um later on in in the the winner, but at the end of the day, um have to face off in terms of a tiebreaker where where the game is being played, you know, and it could these are all massive wins that they’d be able to post. And I just think about so even the Eagles game that they lost, the fact that they were in that with who they were missing, right? I I looked at that and I’m like that’s not a loss. You know what I mean? Like you’re the fact that they have gotten to where they have gotten with the pieces that are missing. And I get it. Every team’s going to say we’re missing some pieces. They are missing virtually like every star on offense and and a line and and we all see how important these lines are and how that changes everything. Um Carson Wentz had very little time to throw when we he was here two weeks ago and I saw him. They had a remade line. I mean they are making something out of nothing uh in a wild manner. And so again and also I would say this it’s so much Baker but Todd BS deserves a lot of credit. I mean this is a guy that like you know Todd doesn’t get excited about much. Todd doesn’t get he doesn’t get high, he doesn’t get low. He’s just like cool, calm and collected but there’s always an answer. These guys have had an answer for everything. Well, it’s the same way and again that if you win, you’re you’re no longer cocky. You’ve got an edge. Uh in the same way if you lose and you have Todd BS’s demeanor, you don’t have a pulse. Yeah. There’s no emotion. He’s taking hits. And now, you know, when you win, it’s just like, wow, everybody’s How cool is this code? He just keeps his cool under pressure. It’s amazing how that works. Yeah. Well, Baker, I mean, him pointing him out, he he nailed it. And that’s that’s us. That’s perception, right? But like I do not think that this man has changed from from what I mean look when he was in high school. I mean he is who he is and uh and it’s working. Hey, you made it all the way to the end. Thanks for that. Check us out every single day streaming live on Disney Plus and the ESPN app 12 to 3 Eastern.

NFL Network’s Sara Walsh and Rich Eisen discuss Baker Mayfield’s MVP-level of play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season.

Tune in to the Emmy-nominated Rich Eisen Show live weekdays from Noon to 3PM ET on Disney+, ESPN+, ESPN Radio, and streaming on SiriusXM channel 80.

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24 comments

  6. I'm glad she brought up Cleveland. He's doing the same thing in Tampa he did in Cleveland. He hasn't changed. Let's not forget, he took the world's worst franchise to the front of everyone's mind. Took them to the playoffs, only to be ushered away. He took the Browns to the playoffs. That alone makes him an MVP. How many have tried since and failed. How many before him failed. The man can play and I wish him the very best.

  7. Winning is the constant. Let them start losing because he is turning the ball over or making dumb mistakes and all will change. But hopefully that does not happen because they are fun to watch.

  14. She’s great. One of the best I’ve ever heard talking about football. Not necessarily about the x’s snd o’s but about the intangibles aspect of the game.

  17. 55 years a diehard Cleveland Browns fan.
    That ended a couple of years ago. Haslam needs to sell, and Andrew Berry needs to go. DePodesta, too. Analytics and Ivy league degrees have FAILED. Unfortunately, those types of egos are incapable of admitting failure. I am a Tampa Bay Bucs fan now. I loathe the Browns, their ownership, their front office, and the half of the fans who didn't support Baker when he was here. I will not be a Browns fan again until they get competent ownership and management. My heart is broken. They used to say that Cleveland Rocks… well, no more. BAKER MAYFIELD ROCKS!!! The Browns had their man, and a group of Ivy league, DEI, geniuses blew it.
    Idiots.

  22. When Liam took the job in Jacksonville they hired Grizzard in-house and kept the same offensive system. So Baker has continuity and can build on the foundation of last season. Grizzard is also a really smart guy and you have to give big credit to the position coaches. Kevin Carberry is a tremendous offensive line coach and their receivers coach Bryan McClendon is also first rate. They were playing their fifth, sixth, and seventh receivers after being ravaged with injuries and losing Egbuka.

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