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Jenna Laine, ESPN Staff Writer
TAMPA, Fla. — If there’s ever a time when the mettle of Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield will be tested, it is now. Over the last two seasons, the 29-year-old former No. 1 pick has created one of the NFL’s best redemption arcs in recent memory.
Mayfield found himself a home in Tampa, led the Bucs to a division title in 2023 and entered Week 9 leading the NFL with 21 touchdown passes and 23 total touchdowns.
Yet, in the midst of the most arduous stretch of their season, the Bucs (4-4) have lost three of their last four and face what Mayfield called a “critical game” against the Kansas City Chiefs — the league’s last unbeaten team — on Monday (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC). And they’ll be without the franchise’s all-time receiving leaders in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin once again.
Mayfield didn’t mince words the night that both were injured in Week 7, having already gone to the training room to comfort them before telling reporters, “This absolutely sucks.”
Still, Mayfield is determined to make this work. You could see it in his face, as he spent the majority of that postgame news conference despondent and in disbelief. And then his voice picked up, as if he suddenly found his resolve.
“There is no other way around it,” Mayfield said. “[We’re] going to have to look this thing in the face and take it head on.”
The injuries to Godwin and Evans happened in one fell swoop in Week 7, hosting the Baltimore Ravens on “Monday Night Football.” Godwin suffered a dislocated left ankle and underwent surgery last week, with a glimmer of hope that he could return for the postseason.
“That was really tough. That was a hard thing to see,” left tackle Tristan Wirfs said. “We love them to death. … Our hearts are broken for him. But we’ve gotta move forward.”
Evans suffered what coach Todd Bowles called a “moderate” hamstring strain and is expected back after the Week 11 bye — a timeline Evans and the team believe is on track.
“We have to come together as a team, and obviously in an environment like we’re heading into on a Monday night in Kansas City, we know what we’re going to get,” Mayfield said. “It’s execution, do the little things right, play the field position game and see what happens. We have the veterans, we have the leadership we need to make this thing work and that’s — [the] season is not over. We’re not even halfway done.”
THE BUCS ARE 1-4 since 2017 in games where neither Evans nor Godwin have played, a troubling trend for a team vying for a fourth straight division title. They are trying to get beyond the divisional round of the playoffs as well, which they haven’t done since their Super Bowl season in 2020. It’s something the team talked about all summer. It’s also something Mayfield has yet to do in his career.
They could rely on a late-season push like the one they made last season, but they got help from a weak NFC South and a tiebreaker over the New Orleans Saints. It also doesn’t help that they’ve already been swept by the division-leading Atlanta Falcons.
“It was a hard thing to do, but we came out of it,” Wirfs said of last season. “We could have easily been like, ‘Yeah, the season’s over.’ But we didn’t. We rallied together, fought back, scratched and clawed and made a playoff push.”
Rookie center Graham Barton said he’s leaning on the veterans and what they gleaned from last season and in prior years.
“This is a resilient group,” Barton said. “We’re just gonna put our heads down and go back to work. That’s all we know. That’s all we’re gonna do.”
There have been no upgrades for Mayfield on the offensive side of the ball ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline, as the Bucs have stood pat with the young players they have on their roster.
In their 31-26 loss to the Falcons last week, Mayfield relied heavily on screens and the ground game with his running backs. Bucky Irving, Rachaad White and Sean Tucker caught a combined 13 passes for 90 receiving and a touchdown from White, while the group — which included a 17-yard pickup from rookie receiver Jalen McMillan — rushed for 93 yards.
Tight end Cade Otton has picked up the slack in the passing game. He caught nine of 10 targets for 81 receiving yards and two touchdowns in Week 8.
Mayfield will likely lean on Otton again this week, as the Chiefs’ 80.86 yards given up to opposing tight ends is the most by any team in the league coming into the week.
“When we have Mike and Chris out there, the offense just looks different,” Mayfield said. “You’re scheming things up for those guys. And Cade does a lot of the dirty work and so right now, Cade’s being able to showcase his physical talent, and he’s such a smart football player, unselfish guy. … You’re seeing him thrive because of that.”
Offensive coordinator Liam Coen said he thought Mayfield “handled it really well.”
“I mean, if you look at him, he’s throwing an out-cut to Cade as a single receiver on a third down — we hadn’t done that much this year; that wasn’t something we really dialed up,” Coen said. “We had those routes back there in the past, but it wasn’t really part of our thought process, but he goes and he just takes it.”
The Bucs also got contributions in the second half from receiver Rakim Jarrett, who had three catches for 58 receiving yards in his season debut after being sidelined by offseason knee surgery. In his return he showed he can be a true downfield threat for Mayfield.
“We’re not just Mike and Chris replacements — we’re NFL players too, and we’re trying to go make a name for ourselves,” Jarrett said. “Obviously we’re not going to take the roles on as Mike and CG did — but I think we have playmakers that people just haven’t heard about.
“That’s probably why people are saying what they’re saying about us right now, so we just got to go out there and keep proving them wrong.”
Like Mayfield, Jarrett thrives on adversity.
“I was undrafted,” Jarrett said. “It was 250 picks, and I wasn’t one, so I look at it as me being in the NFL, I am counted out, so we just take it day by day and go out and do our jobs.”
And McMillan, one of the Bucs’ two third-round draft picks this year, continues to try and step up after a quiet start — which included missing two games because of a hamstring strain. He’s now catching 150-160 passes each day after practice with a Jugs machine, a routine Godwin gave him.
In the second quarter, he was wide open on what would have been a touchdown as the Falcons had a coverage bust. McMillan said it was his error.
“That was on me,” McMillan said. “I was running that route off steps. I was supposed to go far from outside. We just didn’t connect on it. That just comes with reps and confidence. We’ll get it right. We have gotten it right, and I just can’t wait for the next rep we get on that same play.”
MAYFIELD’S INTERCEPTION NUMBERS have gone up, as he enters Week 9 tied for the most at nine with the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and Green Bay Packers’ Jordan Love.
“There’s always a fine line of balancing the aggression and protecting the football, and when you have your shots, you got to take advantage of ’em,” Mayfield said. “But if they’re not there, do the same thing, check it down, get out of the play, move on to the next down and live to play another down.
“It pisses me off. I don’t want to turn the ball over. To me, that’s shooting our whole team in the foot.”
On top of losing Evans and Godwin, Mayfield faces more pressure because of the defense’s recent struggles. After the Bucs started the season 3-1 and did not allow an opponent to score more than 26 points in a game, they have surrendered 27 points or more in each of their last four games.
“We’re making strides, and we can make 62 good plays and five bad plays and it goes haywire,” Bowles said. “We got to cut out the bad plays. We understand that. We’re working on it daily. If you cut out the bad plays and play the rest of the game, we’ll be OK. We just got to cut out the bad ones.”
At their worst point last season, the Bucs were 4-7. They won five out of their last six games. Evans had four touchdowns in those games, and he and Godwin combined for 823 receiving yards.
Mayfield squeaked to the finish line with some badly bruised ribs, before exploding into the playoffs with a 32-9 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles before losing to the Detroit Lions in the divisional round, 31-23. In those two postseason games, Evans had 195 receiving yards, Godwin had 85, and Otton added 154, with all three registering touchdowns.
Of course, they’ve got to get there first if they want to try and replicate or exceed that, with tougher odds this go around. But they’re all prepared to rally around their leader and each other.
“We all have to make a decision when adversity hits — you either fall apart or come together and do whatever you can to get past it,” Otton said. “I think the guys on this team — whether it’s life or football — are no strangers to adversity. We have to be willing to face it and work hard through it — that’s the only way. I know we’re going to do it.”
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