Todd. Freddie. Dave, Liam and Josh. Baker Mayfield has played for a plethora of OCs

USA Today

2 hours ago

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.'
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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.
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'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 [e-mail] or follow on social media: On X: @JarrettBell
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