The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield are coming off an impressive win against the Green Bay Packers this last week, putting them in the driver seat to win their division and have a home playoff game. Baker was only the second quarterback to have a perfect passer rating in Green bay, the other being Aaron Rodgers who had just a few more chances to do that.
The Bucs will probably playing against the Philadelphia Eagles or Dallas Cowboys in their first playoff game, it would be a shock if they managed to beat either of those teams even at home. But the fact still remains, that Baker has had a great year, and deserves the credit, after many fans and analysts thought his career as a productive starter was over.
Matt LaFleur head coach of the Green Bay Packers spoke highly of Baker’s Performance saying:
“Baker went out and shredded us, It’s disappointing, obviously, because we sacked him five times and ultimately that still wasn’t enough.”
Coach LaFleur was definitely right about that. The Packers kept coming with pressure throughout the whole game, but Baker kept getting back up. This may have been Bakers best performance so far this season and one of his best in his career.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Could Be Playoff Bound
In the previous year, Tom Brady the greatest ever, played his final season in the NFL with the Bucs. As we have seen with the New England Patriots, replacing Brady has not been easy at all. Many analysts thought Baker would not even finish the season as the Bucs starter when they announced he was the quarterback.
Baker however, along with receivers Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, have been playing basically the same as they did with Brady, and in many ways have had a more potent offense than they did in Brady’s last year. This doesn’t mean in any way shape or form that Baker could even be slightly compared to the greatest to ever do it, but this does show that Baker is an NFL starter.
The NFL moves off players quickly and Baker has refused to let the NFL let him go. After being picked number 1 overall by the Cleveland Browns, Baker went through a few teams before finding himself with Bucs this year. This year he’s proving everyone wrong.
If the Bucs get to the playoffs it would be incredibly shocking to see them win a game in the stacked NFC, but that doesn’t take away from his season. Getting to the playoffs is over achieving for this team and while every team wants to finish their year holding the Lombardi Trophy, there is only a short list of NFL teams that have a real chance. X, previously known as Twitter, had a field day after the game, finally giving Baker his flowers for proving everyone wrong this year.
Baker Mayfield on being named NFC offensive player of the week. #nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/QTwkXVGAx0
— Sara Walsh (@Sara_Walsh) December 20, 2023
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Baker Mayfield was the first opposing QB with a perfect passer rating in Lambeau Field. pic.twitter.com/6E8hSmrP3y
— NFL Rumors (@nflrums) December 20, 2023