{"id":688604,"date":"2026-01-19T12:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T12:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/688604\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T12:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T12:19:14","slug":"preventing-another-cliff-dive-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/688604\/","title":{"rendered":"Preventing Another Cliff Dive – JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Still a solid QB.<\/p>\n

As Joe pointed out yesterday, Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield is a third-down baller<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now Joe would like to see more of that third-down baller magic transfer from Mayfield\u2019s legs to Mayfield\u2019s right arm.<\/p>\n

When the season began, Mayfield played better than any Bucs quarterback not named \u201cTom Brady.\u201d By the end of the season, Mayfield was giving off Josh McCown vibes.<\/p>\n

It was a stunning collapse. Still, Jeff Howe of The Athletic thinks Mayfield is still a top-15 quarterback<\/a> despite the drop off a cliff after the Bucs\u2019 bye.<\/p>\n

Biggest midseason faller
Baker Mayfield emerged as the first trendy MVP candidate of the season, and he remained in the mix until injuries took their toll, and the Buccaneers collapsed down the stretch.<\/p>\n

Mayfield debuted at No. 8 and got to as high as No. 3 from Weeks 6-10 before a gradual regression and steep decline by the end. Mayfield was a top-nine QB through Week 16, but a lethargic finish doomed his final ranking.<\/p>\n

Since the dropoff happened, the Bucs have been extremely tight-lipped about what happened. So what are\/were the Bucs hiding?<\/p>\n

Are they freaked out Mayfield has reverted to Cleveland Mayfield? Are they trying to hide injuries? Were they trying to protect Josh Grizzard? Why the Manhattan Project-like secrecy?<\/p>\n

As the creator, curator and overall guru of Pro Football Talk, the great Mike Florio likes to say, \u201cSilence invites speculation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe asked Bucs coach Todd Bowles in his season wrapup if the Bucs\u2019 offense changed due to Mayfield\u2019s injuries, meaning did Grizzard suddenly go full-blown turtle\/screen pass-heavy because Mayfield couldn\u2019t throw the ball downfield?<\/p>\n

Bowles said no, but Joe\u2019s not sure he fully buys that.<\/p>\n

Are the Bucs scared to admit they let Mayfield take the field when he shouldn\u2019t have, being otherwise too beat-up to play, because they didn\u2019t trust Teddy Bridgewater?<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s the case, it\u2019s understandable how an organization would be too embarrassed to admit their backup quarterback was a worse option than a maimed starting quarterback who couldn\u2019t throw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Still a solid QB. As Joe pointed out yesterday, Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield is a third-down baller. Now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,2599,2598,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-688604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-bucs-message-boards","10":"tag-bucs-news","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115921733397488674","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}