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Jenna Laine, ESPN Staff Writer
TAMPA, Fla. — For Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield and backup center Nick Leverett, one euphoric moment forged what would become not only a necessary part of their pregame routine but a cherished gesture of friendship for the first-year teammates: a celebratory head-butt.
“It was like giving candy to a kid,” Leverett said. “It was the best thing.”
It happened in the third preseason game, just after Mayfield had been named the opening-day starter, and the two locked eyes while Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” blared over the speakers at Raymond James Stadium. There was a quick hand slap, and then “Pow!” as the 6-foot-1 Mayfield hurled toward the 6-4 Leverett so their helmets could clash.
Baker’s head-butting guys already… pic.twitter.com/SdUZI9DCYo
— JennaLaineESPN (@JennaLaineESPN) September 25, 2023
“Nick is sick in the head, just like me,” said Mayfield, who has head-butted any willing teammates since his time in college at Oklahoma. “We both enjoy it.”
And in Leverett, whose only rule for the maneuver is “don’t come in soft,” Mayfield has found his equal. They do it multiple times a game, even without helmets.
“He brings a little punch to the party,” Mayfield said. “It’s getting to the point where you might have to avoid him when doing it.”
Tampa Bay came into the offseason knowing it would probably need a replacement for seven-time Super Bowl champ Tom Brady. At age 45, Brady officially retired Feb. 1 and the quest to replace a legend began.
“Everything I seemed to see on Twitter was like, ‘Oh, the Bucs are going to get a quarterback in the draft or something,”’ left tackle Tristan Wirfs said.
On the first day of free agency, Tampa signed Mayfield to take the torch instead.
“I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m playing with Bake and he’s a dawg,'” Wirfs said. “Just give us some time to get stuff rolling, to feel confident.”
The Bucs (9-8) were given the third-longest odds (16%) by ESPN Analytics of reaching the playoffs before the season, yet they managed to one-up their 2022 record of 8-9, win a third consecutive NFC South title and earn a fourth straight playoff bid.
“[Mayfield’s] a guy that wants to win, and he had something to prove,” linebacker Devin White said. “I think that’s the mentality of this team. Coming into this season, nobody believed in us.”
TAMPA BAY FINISHED THE season by winning five of its final six games, with the last being the most important. The Bucs’ 9-0 win over the Carolina Panthers in the finale sealed their ticket to the postseason. A loss would have meant locker cleanout the following day.
Now they will host the Philadelphia Eagles (11-6) in the wild-card round Monday (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC/ESPN+) where they will try to avenge a Week 3 loss in Philly.
Coach Todd Bowles believed it was a no-win predicament for whoever had to fill Brady’s shoes, even in a revamped system with Dave Canales taking over as offensive coordinator. The coach knew his next quarterback would still be compared to Brady — who brought the franchise its second Super Bowl in the 2020 season — and no matter what, it would be, “Well he’s not Tom,” Bowles said.
But he and general manager Jason Licht said they loved Mayfield’s moxie and swagger, and Bowles already had an affinity for the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner. Mayfield, who was looking to prove he could still be a starter in the NFL, was someone the Bucs could afford while footing the bill for Brady’s $35 million cap hit.
They signed the former 2018 No. 1 pick to a one-year contract worth $4 million with incentives that push it to $8.5 million.
“He wasn’t trying to be Tom,” Bowles said. “You’re not going to replace Tom, ever — nobody is. He’s a legend, he’ll go down in the Hall of Fame.”
Mayfield integrated with the team seamlessly, though.
When word quietly trickled around that Mayfield believed in Bigfoot, having gone Sasquatch hunting for his bachelor party in 2019, Leverett’s ears perked up.
“The thing about it, we would go Sasquatch hunting, and we’ll come back with Sasquatch jackets, Sasquatch fur jackets,” Leverett said. “That’s how I feel about going anywhere with Bake.”
Teammates have been struck by Mayfield’s authenticity. The relationships have come naturally.
“That’s just honestly how I’ve always been,” Mayfield said. “Be involved with the team, be one of the guys. [As a] quarterback, you get a lot of the press, but you’ve got to get down and dirty with the guys. You’ve got to understand that you’re in the process with them. Everything needs to feel involved.
“I’ve talked about how a quarterback’s job is to elevate the people around him, and that’s also to make them feel like everybody is a leader. Everybody has a role here.”
Mike Evans wasn’t sure what he was getting in Mayfield. All the franchise’s all-time leading wide receiver could go off of was what he saw on television and read about.
“He’s a much cooler guy than I thought he was,” Evans said. “I always knew he was a really talented player, knew he was tough, knew he played with a lot of energy, mobile and all of those things. But I’ve come to find out he’s an unbelievable teammate.”
Mayfield wasn’t given the starting job either. He had to earn it, and he wouldn’t want it any other way. He entered camp in a competition with Kyle Trask. John Wolford also made this case, but Mayfield ultimately earned the nod, being named the starter after the team’s second preseason game.
Still, through the process, Mayfield earned the respect amid the competition and has stayed the course with his peers.
“He’s just very authentic,” Wolford said. “I kind of believe that the best leaders that I’ve been around are themselves, true to themselves. They’re not trying to be what their dad or what their coach or what their idea of a leader is supposed to be. They are who they are. So that’s what Baker is.”
THE FONDNESS FOR Mayfield has grown on the field. He has shown a willingness to leave the pocket, lower his shoulder and do whatever it takes for a first down.
“Trying to run through guys — you don’t see that from many quarterbacks,” right tackle Luke Goedeke said. “He needs to start eating his Wheaties a little bit more. He’s a little light right now.”
Evans’ favorite quality about Mayfield is his ability to bounce back from a bad play and in between series tell teammates, “Hit the reset button. Onto the next one.”
“He’s got a [really] cool way of how he relates to the players — particularly guys who might be struggling,” Canales said. “He’s got a way of talking to them and doing those things.”
Mayfield also can read the room and knows when to ease the tension.
“I always love when he first comes into the huddle — whether it’s practice or a game — he’s always cracking a joke,” tight end Cade Otton said. “It’s either cracking a joke or giving some motivational speech. I’m always on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what he’s going to do, and that’s always great.”
During the team’s strong late stretch, Mayfield and Otton connected on an 11-yard, game-winning touchdown with 31 seconds to go in Week 14 at the Atlanta Falcons.
Everything didn’t go as planned, but when Otton said, “We believed and we fought” after the game, his words summarized what Mayfield has helped instill in this team.
“That’s something that’s super admirable — just being in his position, like thrust into [that] role, and being comfortable in who he is,” Otton said of filling Brady’s shoes. “We certainly had our share of adversity this season — losing some games that we felt like we shouldn’t have.
“We all stayed the course, Baker stayed the course and just kept working. And that’s at the foundation of who he is — he works, he competes and he brings us all together.”
Wirfs, who was 21 when he began blocking for Brady, admits Mayfield is more relatable from an age-gap standpoint. At 28, Mayfield is more like a brother than a dad for a team that went from the league’s oldest to the youngest.
“I love Tom to death,” Wirfs said. “I think we had a great relationship, but Bake’s three years older than me. It’s different. Me and Bake go have a drink. We go out to dinner. Tom couldn’t. With the level of fame that Tom was at, he couldn’t come out. He couldn’t go to the O-line dinner with us. So they were just different relationships.”
THE LONE BLEMISH in the Bucs’ end-of-season run was a 23-13 loss to the New Orleans Saints in Week 17. The same Saints team they had beaten in three straight, including a dominant Week 4 victory.
“It’s just handling the highs and the lows,” Canales said. “When you have relationships, you weather those storms better, when you have each other’s back and there’s no finger-pointing and we’re all pulling in the same direction.”
Mayfield suffered a rib injury that game that limited his ability to throw the following week in the finale at the Panthers.
“I didn’t take any impactful shots,” Mayfield said of the Carolina game. “Each day it gets better and better.”
Still, he left that game dealing with an ankle injury as the rematch against the Eagles looms. He had limited practice time as the team prepared for Monday.
“We were really trying to find ourselves at that point in the season — trying to figure out who we were going to be, especially offensively,” Mayfield said of the Week 3 matchup with Philadelphia. “I think we’ve kind of realized what we’re good at [and] the bread and butter for us.”
1:57
Stephen A. expects Baker Mayfield to ‘cook’ Eagles defense
Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe see Baker Mayfield and the Bucs as favorites heading into their wild-card matchup with the Eagles.
The defense is now fully healthy too, with starting cornerback Carlton Davis III and outside linebacker Shaquil Barrett back from injuries, and that unit took several steps forward ending the season with a shutout. Kicker Chase McLaughlin went 3-for-3 and finished the season with a franchise record 93.3 field goal percentage in his first year with the Bucs.
“Knowing the pieces we have, knowing that you don’t have to do anything special — do your job at the highest level you can, you don’t have to be Superman — the rest will take care of itself,” Mayfield said. “Luckily, we got bailed out by the defense and special teams, but it’s time for us [as an offense] to carry our weight and improve. What better time than now in the playoffs?”
As Mayfield’s contract status looms, he and the team’s focus is strictly on the playoffs, and Bowles is thrilled with what he has seen both on and off the field.
“He just put his head down, and he worked and he won the team over, which is what was great about it,” Bowles said. “He’s doing things his way, and we’re doing things our way. It’s not as pretty as when Tom was here, but we’re scrappy and we’re pulling them out and we’re getting things done.”
Source: www.espn.com