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USA Today
25 minutes ago
- USA Today
Todd. Freddie. Dave, Liam and Josh. Baker Mayfield has played for a plethora of OCs
TAMPA — Baker Mayfield was headed to the weight room after a recent training camp practice, so, squeezed for time, he suggested that we walk and talk. This got us started with a great deal of efficiency. We walked. Briskly. He talked. Mayfield, the vibrant Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, is flowing off a career year that included him throwing for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns. His reward? Heading into his eighth NFL season, he has another new coordinator, as Josh Grizzard was promoted from pass game coordinator after Liam Coen bolted to the Jacksonville Jaguars. How many coordinators have you had since you've been in the league? Just outside the weight room, Mayfield stopped in his tracks. Time to calculate. 'Let's see. Year 1, I had two,' Mayfield, drafted No. 1 overall by the Cleveland Browns in 2018, told USA TODAY Sports, referring to Todd Haley and Freddie Kitchens. 'Second year, Todd Monken. That's three. Alex Van Pelt, four. (Kevin) Stefanski called the plays. I count that as four and five. 'Then Carolina, Ben McAdoo. Then (Sean) McVay out in L.A. I don't even know what number I'm at right now.' Uh, that would be seven. He finishes with the Bucs chapter of his journey. 'Dave Canales. Liam Coen. And Josh Grizzard,' Mayfield concludes. That's 10, which is proof that Mayfield, 30, who earned his two career Pro Bowl selections the past two seasons, has mastered the art of adaptation. Now he's joined at the hip with a man who has never called plays before on the NFL level. Well, again. Canales and Coen hadn't called NFL plays before, then after one year on the job with Mayfield as triggerman, they landed head coaching gigs. What's different with Grizzard? 'Well, he was here,' Mayfield said. Grizzard joined the Bucs last year after seven years with the Miami Dolphins, where his most substantial role was coaching wide receivers. 'He was in every quarterback meeting we had last year. It's not like a complete overhaul, where I'm having to get to know him as a person and learn how he thinks about it. Since he was in our meetings, I know exactly what he likes to do. Yeah, and it's just the play-calling stuff with him. We're doing a lot of periods to simulate game-like situations for him, so we can be on the same page. It's been good so far.' Bucs coach Todd Bowles, who has hired an offensive coordinator every year since succeeding Bruce Arians in 2022, chuckled when asked about Mayfield's new play-caller. 'He's in the same boat with me,' Bowles said. 'I don't think it's as big a challenge this year. Of course, we haven't played a game yet, but because Josh was in the system last year, there's chemistry there. So, this is the closest he's had to almost being the same as possible. Obviously, the play-calling's going to be different. And Josh has added some tweaks. But the comfort level is there.' MORE: Key word for Cam Ward? Patience. The Titans still have a long way to go The Bucs, who won their fourth consecutive NFC South crown in 2024, were the only team in the NFL last season to rank in the Top 5 in both passing (3rd) and rushing (4th). They were fourth in scoring (29.5 points per game), led the league in third-down conversion rate (50.9%) and became the first team in NFL history to complete at least 70% of its passes while averaging at least 5 yards per carry. And Mayfield set a franchise record with a 106.8 passer rating. That's a rather high bar for the unit to top, but it may take that for the Bucs to break through as a surefire Super Bowl contender. Grizzard has said that he wants to be more explosive in the deep passing game. Mayfield is undoubtedly game, assuming the protection (that will likely miss all-pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs for the start of the season after arthroscopic knee surgery) holds up. And given Grizzard's background with Miami, it will be interesting to see whether there's more emphasis on pre-snap motion that could enable free releases for star receiver Mike Evans and emerging rookie Emeka Egbuka. Still, whatever the schemes, no matter the play-caller, it's a quarterback's league. None of it works without Mayfield, who found the ideal landing spot after his career seemed to be in jeopardy a few years ago. Listen to Evans, the 12th year vet, rave about the energy and skill set. 'He's super-positive,' Evans told USA TODAY Sports. 'He holds people accountable in a positive way. He's like way better at throwing the football than I think people think. He's way better running the football than people think. He's the ultimate quarterback, especially in this day and age. The mobile quarterbacks are the best quarterbacks. And he has that.' As much as Mayfield's journey speaks to resilience and well, the ability to adapt, it is also a marker for good timing on multiple levels. While Mayfield needed a new team in 2023, the Bucs needed a quarterback — and at a team-friendly price — after Tom Brady retired (for a second time) in February of that year. 'We were lucky that Baker was available,' Bucs general manager Jason Licht told USA TODAY Sports. 'Everything was perfect timing. We didn't have any money to spend and he wanted to land somewhere to revive his career. And he saw, just like Tom did, that we had some receivers and we had an offensive line. And the system fit. So. We were fortunate.' The fit included the Bucs telling Mayfield to merely be himself. His reputation as a high-strung lightning rod didn't matter to Licht and Bowles. They wanted authenticity — to go with performance. Still, knowing what he knows now, imagine what he'd tell the 'rookie Baker Mayfield' that might have made a difference. 'Control what you can control,' Mayfield said. 'The thing is, I don't like going back and saying I would do this or that. It's gotten me to this point. You grow and learn from your experiences. I'm not one to say I would change anything. 'Off-the-field stuff, there's certain ways I would handle relationships and what not, just from where my perspective is in life now. I wouldn't have put as much time into certain things. But control what you can. And the thing you can always hang your hat on is how you treat people, and the impression you leave on them. You can always try to make everybody better around you. That's probably what I'd tell myself.' Experience, fortified by adversity, has seemingly been a great teacher for Mayfield. The edge remains. Yet Licht maintains he's seen Mayfield (who signed a three-year, $100 million extension in 2024) more dialed in than he's ever been during his Bucs tenure, which goes a long way in making those around him better. MORE: Michael Penix Jr. shows fight, literally, in Falcons-Titans practice scrap 'He never really had to try to win over the team to become a leader,' Licht said. 'It kind of became natural, just the way he competes. He really wants to win a Super Bowl, obviously, but I just personally have seen — not that he needed to mature — that he also really wants to prove to the detractors that they screwed up by letting him go. 'Cocky is not the word,' Licht added. 'But it kind of is.' Which made me wonder, as our chat neared the end. The Browns had such high hopes for Mayfield when they drafted him out of Oklahoma, then dumped him after four years to hop on the Deshaun Watson train. Paid any attention to the latest Browns quarterback drama? 'No,' Mayfield replied, emphatically. He seemed to carefully measure his words before walking into the weight room. 'That's not my problem,' he said. He had a parting message, though, for the long-suffering Browns fans. 'I love Cleveland, the town, man,' Mayfield said. 'It gets a bad rap.' No, with the prospects inviting enough for another big season with the Bucs, there's no reason for Mayfield to dwell on the past. Not here. Not now. Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@ or follow on social media: On X: @JarrettBell On Bluesky:
NBC News
26 minutes ago
- NBC News
The Dallas Cowboys haven't won big in 30 years. Or have they?
On a Hollywood red carpet last week, Jerry Jones, the owner of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, was asked about his team's upcoming season. 'If we get that offensive line rolling,' Jones told an interviewer, 'we'll have a good team.' What counts as a "good" season is more subjective in Dallas than anywhere else — and it's why, ever since Jones purchased the team for $140 million in 1989, there has been no other North American professional sports franchise quite like the Cowboys. Since they won Super Bowls in 1992, 1993 and 1995, the Cowboys have not advanced to a conference championship game in 30 years, the fourth-longest active drought in the NFL. That lack of on-field performance would typically doom a franchise's relevance. Not the Cowboys. Since the 1996 season, Dallas has employed eight head coaches, irked several of its biggest superstars during drawn-out contract negotiations and lost 13 of its last 18 playoff games. Yet with Jones keenly keeping them in the conversation, they have won the mindshare of a global audience. The reason Jones was strolling the red carpet was the premiere of "America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys," a Netflix docuseries about Jones and his team's decades of drama. It began streaming only days after Sportico ranked the Cowboys as the NFL's most valuable franchise, with a worth north of $12 billion. Last year, CNBC also ranked Dallas as the NFL's most valuable team, while Forbes named it the world's most valuable sports franchise. The Cowboys' value and mystique have been perpetually increased by Jones, 82, who carries official titles of owner, president and general manager of the team while also serving as its chief ringmaster, one uniquely attuned to what fans want. "I do believe if we're not being looked at, then I'll do my part to get us looked at," Jones said at the Netflix premiere. "The beautiful thing for networks, if you will, streaming companies, is that the NFL is a 365-day-a-year interest factory. A lot of programming you have to spend as much ... to promote it as you to do make it. The Cowboys are a soap opera 365 days a year. When it gets low, I'll stir it up." And few teams capitalize on and court that attention like they do. Despite their 7-10 record in 2024, 13 games involving the team still ranked among the 100 most-watched prime-time telecasts of last year, which tied with Kansas City for most among all NFL teams. To no surprise, six Dallas games will be broadcast nationally and in prime time this season, second only to Kansas City. According to Fanatics, the global sports merchandise retailer, the team ranks among the five best-selling teams on its platform, across all sports, since 2023. Dallas' merchandise has been sold in more than 110 countries. The Cowboys have reached the divisional round of the playoffs, one round away from the NFC championship, four times since 2009, only to lose all four times. Last year, their playoff hopes were doused by midseason after an injury to quarterback Dak Prescott. And yet they remained the NFL's hottest ticket in 2024. On StubHub, the online ticket retailer, the Cowboys sold not only the most tickets of any team, but they did so overwhelmingly — selling 63% more tickets than the second-ranked team. Entering this season, few are buying Jones' team as a title contender. Only 1% of futures bets on DraftKings Sportsbook have been placed on the Cowboys to win the NFC championship, according to a company spokesperson. Still, that hasn't depressed demand to watch Dallas play, with the team selling more tickets entering the 2025 season than any other team — including 40% more than the even the second-ranked Buffalo Bills, according to a StubHub spokesperson. It costs 89% less to watch Buffalo, a Super Bowl contender featuring the reigning Most Valuable Player in Josh Allen, on the road this year than the Cowboys, according to the company. The spokesperson wrote that the Dallas spike may reflect several factors, "including the team's national fan base and widespread brand recognition." Beyond the revenue they bring in, the Cowboys have understood how to win the attention economy, too. The latest Netflix docuseries isn't the streamer's first foray into the Cowboys' culture. After the docuseries 'America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders' debuted in the summer of 2024, it was ranked in Netflix's global top 10 for English TV for four consecutive weeks, and it was ranked among the top 10 U.S. TV shows for five straight weeks, according to the company. It wound up ranked in the top-10 TV list for 27 countries — proving yet again that the team's success or failure on the field are only notionally connected to its popularity. (It has been renewed for a third season.) In 2010, the Cowboys topped Nielsen's media-exposure rankings in part by producing the largest gross audience during nationally televised games. More than a decade later, that exposure transcends borders. In 2024, one firm's analysis of Google search data suggested that more Google searches per month were Cowboys-related than there were any other team. Much of that interest could be attributed to decisions stoked by Jones. In the winter, his promotion of the team's offensive coordinator to head coach was received unfavorably locally. He has prolonged contract talks in recent seasons with Prescott and receiver CeeDee Lamb before he reached deals on the eve of the regular season. The situation has led to calls for Jones to step down as the general manager overseeing the roster but kept the Cowboys a nonstop sports-talk topic. This month, the cycle has repeated again with star defender Micah Parsons. Since Parsons, who is seeking a lucrative new contract, asked for a trade this month, Jones has regularly held media briefings during the team's preseason practices and offered cryptic updates. On the red carpet, Jones acknowledged that when he bought the Cowboys in 1989, he personally had only a fraction of the required money to actually pay for them, relying on borrowed money to make up the difference, and that once he was in charge, he was "winging" running an NFL franchise, losing what he said was often $1 million per month. But what Jones knew, instinctually, was how to keep eyes on his team. When the Cowboys opened a new stadium in 2009, it included a new innovation. To walk from their locker room to the field, Cowboys players had to use a tunnel that passed between a pair of glass-walled lounges from which high-paying fans could watch. 'It is wonderful to have the great athletes and the great players, but there's something more there," Jones said last week. "There's sizzle, there's emotion, and, if you will, there's controversy. That controversy is good stuff in terms of keeping and having people's attention.'
Washington Post
26 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Bryce Young might not be a superstar, but he has showed he's not a bust
Two seasons into Bryce Young's tumultuous professional career, it is perhaps most fair to declare what he is not rather than postulate what he is. Young is not, contrary to his earliest returns with a horrible Carolina Panthers team (that included being benched last September), a total bust.
