Why Baker Mayfield is PERFECT for Tampa Bay Buccaneers | THE HERD NFL w/ Colin Cowherd

Why Baker Mayfield is PERFECT for Tampa Bay Buccaneers | THE HERD NFL w/ Colin Cowherd

Welcome to the Herd’s official YouTube channel. Make sure to like and subscribe. Don’t forget to check out the Colin Coward podcast, all of our NFL instant reactions and more football content. You know, Magic Johnson would have been a good basketball player, but he was so physically big for the point guard position, 68. Now, you’ve got a lot of big guards. He also was not a great shooter. Now, the NBA is about shooting. Um, I mean, Steph Curry would have worked much better now than later because he took shots that you weren’t allowed to take in the 70s, 80s, 90s. I don’t care how good you were at shooting them. The the math hadn’t been figured out in the NBA. And and Steph Curry would have been shooting them and they would have said, “Well, you’re hitting 38% of them.” And Steph would have said, “Yeah, but if you do threes and twos, it took the analytics community to convince people.” And it still the Lakers forever would not embrace the three-point shot. So Steph Curry born in the perfect era, a small guy, not physical, not a great defender, but his shot, which has been totally embraced because the sport changed like the sport changed. Um, and I and I, you know, I I just think the reality is Baker Mayfield has had a great couple of years in Tampa, but it used to be Stalk and Aman and Terry Bradshaw and Dan Fouts, you got drafted by a team and you crossed your fingers they would eventually get you the right coach. Eventually Dan Fouts gets Don Coriel, right? And eventually Elway gets Shanahan. But you kind of just stayed with your team. But young GMs now GMs are younger. Everybody trades. I mean, Micah Parsons just got traded to a great team in the same conference, Green Bay from Dallas. And so, if you look at Baker’s first five years in the NFL, if he’d have been born in 1950, 19, it would have been done. He was under 500. His passer rating was mid 80s. He completed 61% of his throws. He had 100 touchdown passes, 65 picks. he would have never been given other opportunities. But in this era, sleepy Tampa, which has always been able to get the roster right, but until Brady could never get the quarterback right, looked around and said, “Well, McVey liked him. He didn’t get to a playoff in Cleveland.” And they put their arms around him. And and Tampa’s a very sleepy brand. Like we all know the great brands in the NFL like the Niners and the Eagles and the Ravens and the Steelers. And then we all know the bad brands. They can’t get out of their own way. You know, the Jets and the Panthers and at Cleveland and Chicago a lot. Tampa’s one of those that’s much closer to the top than the bottom. People tend to think they’re in the middle, but since 2002, the Buccaneers have more playoff wins than Buffalo. The Vikings, a well-run team, the Broncos. By the way, they have more Super Bowl wins in that time than the Niners and the Cowboys. And oh, by the way, only New England and Kansas City the last 23 years in the NFL have more Super Bowls. They’re on a long list of two or a short list. So, Tampa’s always been wellrun. They just can’t get the quarterback right. And they’ve got quiet owners, a great GM, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin. Now they’ve got another young star receiver. It’s never been a personnel issue in Tampa. They’ve had I covered them years ago. They’ve always had players, but I think Tampa is one of those sneaky good businesses, but I think Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold deserves this. And Gino Smith, they would not have been able to get these massive contracts and get a third or a fourth team. It people gave up on you. People just gave up on you. Here is, by the way, Baker Mayfield with the Kelsey brothers this summer talking about the fit in Tampa. This isn’t to on the other teams and franchises. No, man. You already know. You already know, man. You got to do But like the when you step in and your GM and your head coach say, “Hey, just be you.” Yeah. After I’ve been told at every stop and everywhere I go, “Hey, you need to tone it down a little bit. You need to be a franchise quarterback.” That it’s just not who I am. Like, I wear my emotions on my sleeves. We’ve hung out. You guys know me. I’m going to talk. I’m going to do whatever. Uh but when it’s time to turn the lights on and go do something, I’m going to do it. So when I stepped into the building, they all told me to just be myself. And so it’s been not to say like comfortable, but it’s felt like home since the beginning. Yeah. And it does. It looks like home and it feels like home. And the NFL now is a very transactional league. And it’s been great for Baker Mayfield cuz you go look at those first five seasons. He didn’t suddenly get more talented. He got bad fits, weird cities, bitter media. Five seasons in in the 70s, nobody is rolling the dice and say, “You’re our guy.” He feels like a perfect fit in Tampa. And I do I I believe, you know, I always hear about, you know, young people are struggling. Young people are struggling with their mental health. And I do think some people have old school mentality. They want to stay in their hometown and society’s gotten incredibly transactional and fast and fluid. In my industry, there’s a change every six months. I Some people just aren’t built for it. It it’s it’s they they were they were born too late. Uh Baker got it right. I mean, this is a great story, but it wasn’t a story that feels that possible even like 15 years ago. The league’s gotten incredibly transactional. Young GMs are willing to trade anybody. Jack with the news. No, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. You know the other thing, Jac, you talked about this yesterday is when you look at the great quarterbacks in this league, very rarely, they were all on the market. I mean, Baker was on the market after Cleveland and Josh Allen did not go number one or Momes or Jordan Love or Aaron Rogers. I mean, how many teams could have had Dan Marino? Like the idea Pton Manning goes one or a John Elway. When you look at the best quarterbacks in the league, they they Ohio State had Joe Burrow, then he went and won a Natty at LSU. Generally, they’re available to all the bad teams. Baker was available to the league and four or five teams that could have had a shot at him are still bad at quarterback. And when think about Brady, Brady came out of New England as the GOAT. Two teams aggressively went after him, Tampa and the Chargers. And for the next three years, he was still a top three quarterback in the league. So, I don’t feel sorry for teams in the NFL that struggle. Baker was there for everybody. Sam Darnold was there for the Raiders. He’ll flourish in Seattle now. Yeah. By the way, that hearing Baker with with the Kelsey brothers, Colin, it makes you wonder, geez, Shadur Sanders, the Ravens wanted you. The Baltimore Ravens wanted to draft you, a good organization. You said, no, I want to go to the Browns cuz I have a chance to start. Baker basically just unloaded on the Browns to the Kelsey brothers. So, it’s it’s fair to say that Arch Manning will not be coming out of college football this year, that he will come back uh uh for another year to Texas. Uh it’s been a disaster. And uh I’ve got my theories on why. Danny Canel yesterday or the day before talked about is it mental? Is it kind of a Ben Simmons thing, a Markeel Folultz thing where it’s above the shoulders? He’s struggling. He’s lost confidence. I don’t know. I’ve never played quarterback at the college or pro level. So, I I don’t necessarily disagree, but this season’s been bad. He is literally last in the SEC among all quarterbacks in completion percentage and near the bottom in everything else. Of 14 quarterbacks with three plus starts, he’s 12th or worse in virtually everything. It doesn’t look good. The production’s bad. Now, they’re missing some receivers and backs and the O line is young. The defense is much better. It just doesn’t look right. Now, to support him, it should be noted that Bo Nick spent 5 years in college. So did Jaden Daniels and Justin Herbert spent four. Uh so like time on task in college football matters for quarterbacks in the NFL. The other thing is if your last name is Manning, you don’t have a lot of turbulence. Uh Jaylen Herz had a transfer and Baker had a transfer and Joe Burrow had a transfer and Cam Ward had a transfer and that turbulence is incredibly valuable for you, right? It’s incredibly valuable. and Alabama quarterbacks and Texas quarterbacks and USC quarterbacks historically don’t have as much turbulence. They play with better players. So, I I think I was thinking about this this morning. Take quarterbacks like 31 years or younger. Don’t take Stafford or Aaron Rogers. Let’s talk about this generation of quarterbacks. Let’s look at the quarterback mountain in the NFL. So, the 10 best quarterbacks, and we can argue who it is, but right now, so far this season, here are the 10 best quarterbacks. Now, think about this. Patrick Mahomes had a losing record in college. That’s turbulence. Josh Allen, small school, Wyoming, awful first year in the pros. Joe Burrow had to transfer multiple injuries. Lamar Jackson passed over by everybody, including the Ravens in the first round. They got him with their second pick, and many believed he was a receiver and not a quarterback. Justin Herbert, probably the best route. I’ll get to him in a second, though. Dak Prescott, fourthrounder, non-traditional power, couple of injuries. Here he is today, a top 10 quarterback. Baker Mayfield, multiple teams, had to transfer in college. Jared Goff went to a non-traditional football power, got crushed, first year Jared Fischer, gets to a Super Bowl, eventually gets traded to losing Detroit. Jaylen Herz, second rounder, had to transfer. Bama benched him in a national championship game. And Jordan Love, non-traditional power, Utah State, lost a lot of games. had to sit for three years. So, of all the top 10 quarterbacks, the young quarterbacks, this generation’s quarterbacks, Herberts had it the easiest. And think about this, he was a three-star player, not a five-star. He had three different coaches at Oregon and Harbaugh his third coach in the pros. So, it took him his fifth coach to get a legendary coach. And that’s the easiest route. Justin Herbert’s route’s been like, “Oh, Oregon.” Well, yeah, Oregon was good, but they couldn’t get the coach right during his stay there cuz he started like five or six games into his I think freshman year and he goes to the Chargers and two coaches don’t work. Now, he’s put up great numbers at Oregon and great. He’s got the easiest route. So, my take is on Arch Manning, he’s never had turbulence. He grew up with money. He grew up with fame. He’s a great-looking kid. He goes to Texas. He was on a dominant high school team. This turbulence is important. It’s not a coincidence that all these guys had to overcome stuff. All of them. Here’s Sarkc on Arch’s struggles and why they help. I think you hit the nail on the head. I think some of this is really good. You know, here’s a guy who’s had an awesome life. you know, he’s had he he’s he’s you know, the way he’s grown up, where he played, the school he went to, the people he’s been surrounded by. Um, but but I think you learn a lot about yourself through adversity and and and overcoming adversity and getting on the other side of adversity. Uh, and so to have some of this adversity that he has right now and when he gets on the other side of it, I think all of this is going to serve not only well for him, but well for us as a team. And so, um, love the challenge for him, love the challenge for us. Yeah. and and and it’s just, you know, I read a story, it must have been like 10 or 15 years ago, and somebody was writing about UFC fighters and how most of them grew up with brothers roughousing. They grew up physical kids, sometimes older brothers picking on them. And it’s like, yeah, if you’re going to be that tough when you’re 28, at 18 and eight, you probably have to defend yourself at some point. Like and I and I look at Arch Manning and if it was just, hey, the best high schooler goes to the best college goes to the NFL. That’s the Pton Manning story. That’s the Matt Stafford story. And he ended up with Detroit. It almost never works that way. It’s unbelievable. At one point in the NFL, there were three quarterbacks starting from NC State and none from USC or Alabama. I mean, in most of these Alabama quarterbacks, it’s not that they’re not good kids, but you know, M. Jones Tua. You know, when you lead every football game, this has been my knock on JJ McCarthy. He didn’t have to throw. They won. He had the best coach. He had the best offensive line. He had the best defense. Outside of Ohio State, he always had better players. So, I mean, I mean, think about how great Ohio State football is. I would say it’s the second best college program of my life. CJ Stout is their only great NFL quarterback. And right now, he’s reeling. And last year they couldn’t keep a receiver healthy. The left tackle had an off year. This year he may have the worst offensive line in football. Now he got to the playoffs. I think he’s excellent. But CJ Strad, he’s he is living a real life. It’s it I mean I I I always say this. I remember when Matt Liner played at USC. They were so dominant and the Pack 10 was really bad at that time. I think one year he got sacked like 11 times. He got popped in the mouth once at Arizona State and he had a bloody lip. And I’m like I’ve never seen that with Matt Liner. like it was just he he lived this life. He sat in the pocket. He threw to great players, five star. It’s like, man, that’s not preparing you for the NFL. CJ Strad the last year and a half. Can’t keep a receiver healthy. Doesn’t have a run game. It’s easier for the Texans now to block a punt than pick up two yards near the goal line. They can’t run the football. So, I mean, we have right now we have starting quarterbacks in the NFL. Think about this. from Utah State, Wyoming, Delaware, Cal, one from USC. And by the way, he’s bounced all over the league. Sam Darnold, he bounced all over the league. So I think this stuff I I I think this stuff for Arch Manning I I think it’s all Caleb Williams. Well, Oklahoma, USC, half of this, six of the other, you know, whatever. Caleb Williams, I guess. by the way, off to a rocky start. So, Jmack, I guess my point is when you look at quarterback Mountain, there are no easy paths. There are no drafted number one, went to a good team. Like even Patrick Mahomes sat for a year. I I I remember I watched Patrick Mahomes twice in college. I thought he was way too wild. I’m like, “This conference is crazy. He was winning 5445. This is nonsense. These big arena league football.” That’s what it was. Yeah. was like 60 to 54. But uh quick note, so I happened to see Joel Clatt downstairs this morning. We were chatting and I was like, you know, Collins been pumping up this quarterback class for the next year’s draft a lot. Arch Manning, Nusmeire, all these young guys. Hey Joel, have you noticed they’ve largely stunk up the joint so far this season? He’s like, well, you could be on to something. Um I mean, we’re done talking Arch Manning in 2026. That’s all right. Um but I I am curious. Club Nick has been dreadful. Yes, he can’t read a defense to save his life. Um, Nusmeer, other than that first game, has struggled. Colin, I think we need to readjust for the 2026 draft. I I think you’re on to something. Uh, and there’s a kid out west. Oh gosh, here we go. USC Jaden Myava. Come on, guys. He’s good. Hour two next.

Colin Cowherd reacts to the latest in NFL. He starts with why Baker Mayfield is the perfect fit for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and why he didn’t work out on Cleveland Browns. Next Colin discusses why Texas quarterback Arch Manning should NOT go into the NFL draft and instead should play another year in college football.

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