“Get healthy, Baker.”
Joe has noticed some readers think Joe is on the take for Bucs coach Todd Bowles. Ha!
(Joe can assure you folks who have offices in the mid-to-high-level reaches of One Buc Palace sure don’t think that way.)
Heck yes, Joe’s been critical of Bowles. Anyone who thinks otherwise is dreaming. Almost weekly Joe has to reach for either sedatives or Pepto Bismol, or both, watching Bowles’ defenses.
But Joe also strives to be fair. For example, Joe thinks the criticism of Bowles’ calm demeanor is garbage. That has never been and never will be a tell if a guy is a good X’s and O’s dude. If anything, Joe admires stoicism on the sidelines as opposed to a cartoon character like Chucky.
However, where Joe will give Bowles props is his sales job on Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht to sign Baker Mayfield prior to the 2023 season. It was one of the smartest moves in franchise history.
Where would this franchise be if it turned to Kyle Trask after Tom Brady retired for good? And before Mayfield fell off the map with his play this past season, he absolutely carried the Bucs to a 6-2 start.
The numbers released by the Bucs media relations department demonstrate what an impressive decision it was by Bowles to campaign to sign Mayfield. Only Jared Goff has more touchdown passes since the start of the 2023 season. And only Matt Stafford and Goff have more passing yards in the same time frame.
With the Bucs, Mayfield has become a top-shelf quarterback. Well, until the late-October bye week.
What happened to Mayfield in the second half of the season is unclear. If Joe were Team Glazer, Joe would have to wait to see how Mayfield bounces back in 2026 before Joe would drop a bag in his lap.
But damn, there is no quarterback in the league with the possible exception of Pat Mahomes with better intangibles than Mayfield.
And Joe maintains Bowles leading the charge on signing Mayfield might be the best thing Bowles has ever done for the franchise aside from his famous gameplan in February 2021, the one that shut down Mahomes and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
Joe only wishes someone at One Buc Palace would do a sales job on Bowles about the joys of having a stud edge rusher the same way Bowles coerced Licht to sign Mayfield.
