{"id":718805,"date":"2026-01-31T10:02:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T10:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/718805\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T10:02:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T10:02:37","slug":"bucs-star-assigns-blame-for-baker-mayfields-struggles-as-qb-gets-majoroffensive-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/718805\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucs Star Assigns Blame For Baker Mayfield’s Struggles As QB Gets MajorOffensive News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a>\u2018 2025 season wasn\u2019t just a disappointment; it was a freefall. Tampa started the season with a 6\u20132 record, but after that, they lost seven of their final nine games and lost the NFC South division title for the first time in a decade. And according to Lavonte David, the blame doesn\u2019t belong where most fans are placing it on quarterback BakerMayfield<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a lot of factors that go in with football \u2013 the main thing is injuries,\u201d Lavonte David said on the Up & Adams Show with Kay Adams<\/a>. \u201cInjuries all across the board from the offensive line to the back end to the skill guys, and for himself [Baker Mayfield]. So, see, it\u2019s just hard to deal with that to continue to play at an extremely high level. And defensively, we didn\u2019t have him out as much as we should have when we were on the field, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut what you saw out of Baker is what you\u2019re going to get from Baker. That first half of the season, he\u2019s a complete dawg. Playing healthy and controlling the offense \u2013 being high powered, that\u2019s what he is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NFL,<\/p>\n

NFL, American Football Herren, USA NFC Wild Card Round-Washington Commanders at Tampa Bay Buccaneers Jan 12, 2025 Tampa, Florida, USA Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield 6 during the second quarter of a NFC wild card playoff against the Washington Commanders at Raymond James Stadium. Tampa Raymond James Stadium Florida USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xKimxKlementxNeitzelx 20250112_jhp_sv7_0164<\/p>\n

Lavonte pushed back against the idea that Baker Mayfield suddenly struggled as a player, pointing to what Tampa saw early in the season as the true version of their QB. Before injuries began to stack up in the 2025 season, Baker Mayfield posted a passer rating of 97 while throwing for 2,365 yards, 17 touchdowns, and just three interceptions over the first 10 games. Tampa went 6-4 in that stretch and looked dangerous.<\/p>\n

But over the final stretch of the 2025 season, Baker Mayfield had appeared on the injury report with at least five injuries, including an oblique strain, a left AC joint sprain, an unspecified right shoulder issue, and two separate knee issues. It did not help that most of the players in Tampa Bay\u2019s offense also ended up on multiple injury reports by the end of the season. However, the quarterback continued to shoulder the responsibility, but the margin for error disappeared fast.<\/p>\n

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Over the final seven games, Baker Mayfield\u2019s passer rating dipped to 79.8, with 1,328 yards, 9 touchdowns, and eight interceptions. Adding to the frustration, the Bucs held second-half leads in four of those seven late-season losses. Flip just one of those games, and Tampa likely would have walked away with another NFC South title.<\/p>\n

So, Tampa Bay\u2019s defense did not help matters either, finishing 20th in the league in scoring defense (24.2 points allowed on average). But Lavonte David also believes another off-field factor quietly made it harder for Baker Mayfield: Tampa Bay\u2019s revolving door at offensive coordinator.<\/p>\n

How did the OC changes in Tampa Bay add to Baker Mayfield\u2019s struggles?<\/p>\n

Since arriving in Tampa Bay in 2023, Baker Mayfield has been forced to adapt on the fly. He started under OC Dave Canales, then transitioned to Liam Coen a year later. In January, Coen left to become the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a>, prompting the Bucs to promote Josh Grizzard. Lavonte David believes that turnover was one of the factors adding to Mayfield\u2019s struggles.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHaving all these different OC\u2019s played a huge part in it [Mayfield\u2019s struggles],\u201d Lavonte David added. \u201cI know it\u2019ll be different for me. My first whatever years, I had about five different defensive coordinators. And I know how being able to transition and how to get on the same page, and trying to figure out what the coaches want and how they want things to operate and stuff like that. So, I can really imagine how difficult it is for Baker, being the quarterback of a football team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Tampa is making yet another change at OC, but this one comes with familiarity for Baker Mayfield. The Bucs recently hired Zac Robinson as their new OC<\/a>, a coach Mayfield already knows from their time together with the Los Angeles Rams. It will still be Mayfield\u2019s 11th OC in nine seasons. But Lavonte David sounded excited about Robinson and what he could do for Mayfield and his offense next.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a little bit of familiarity with Zac Robinson and what he did with Atlanta and college\u2026 defensively, with the stuff he was doing over there,\u201d David said. \u201cSo, definitely looking forward to seeing him get the offense back going because they got the weapons, got the guys, and you got Baker to distribute the ball throughout to those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson recently helped guide the Atlanta Falcons to top-15 offensive finishes in back-to-back seasons, even with limited personnel. Now, he takes over an offensive unit in Tampa Bay that could perform as the league\u2019s best when healthy. But apart from getting a new coordinator, there was more exciting news for the Bucs recently on the offensive side.<\/p>\n

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Baker Mayfield drops a major update on one of his offensive weapons<\/p>\n

Beyond coaching changes, Tampa Bay also received intriguing news regarding wide receiver Mike Evans. This past season, Evans played in just 8 games due to injuries and caught a career-low 30 passes for 368 yards and 3 TDs. With free agency approaching in March, questions about Evans\u2019 future have only grown louder. But according to Baker Mayfield, Evans is not retiring anytime soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told Mike, this is your decision, take your time doing it,\u201d Baker Mayfield said recently on The Ronde Barber Show. \u201cBut understanding who Mike is, that is my guess, that he didn\u2019t want it to end this way. He knows the potential that if we\u2019re able to stay a little bit more healthy, Zac [Robinson] will do great things for us, and we\u2019ll go from there. But Mike\u2019s got more in the tank. You could tell with the energy, the fire he had at the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Evans\u2019 historic run of 11 straight 1,000-yard seasons just ended because of injuries, not decline. Still, Baker Mayfield believes Evans still has plenty left, at least physically. The bigger question is, can Evans picture another full offseason of OTAs, training camp, and a 17-game-long regular season? If Evans does return, and Zac Robinson brings stability in the offense, the 2026 season can look dramatically different for Mayfield and the Bucs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers\u2018 2025 season wasn\u2019t just a disappointment; it was a freefall. Tampa started the season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[223,254,1842,211,260,7,125,9195,58,700,6,209,704,250,2597,2596,111],"class_list":{"0":"post-718805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-falcons","10":"tag-baker-mayfield","11":"tag-buccaneers","12":"tag-carolina-panthers","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","15":"tag-lavonte-david","16":"tag-los-angeles-rams","17":"tag-mike-evans","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-tampa","20":"tag-tampa-bay","21":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","22":"tag-tampabay","23":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers","24":"tag-washington-commanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115989141571399583","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718805","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=718805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}