Can managers trust Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers passing game?
Yahoo Fantasy's Matt Harmon and Chris Allen react to Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield's Week 16 performance against the Panthers. Hear the full conversation on the "Yahoo Fantasy Forecast" podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
... Outside of the explosives, like even in the Earlier parts of the season, if it wasn't the explosives to Egbuka or even Mike Evans when he Was still healthy, the down-to-down passing efficiency for this offense just wasn't there.
Baker Mayfield was essentially living off some of those big plays.
And also from the scrambles as well, to really elevate himself from an EPA per play standpoint.
But now, here in this game, 145 passing yards.
I mean, he was only pressured on around, like, 25, 26% of his dropbacks, And still, its just the passing completion Isnt there.
Uh, some of the throws on third downs aren't there.
I mean, the game-sealing interception, it's just all of those things.
They continue to pile up.
And this isn't a case where it's offensive Line injuries that are really holding it back.
This isn't a case where he's having to deal With a shorthanded pass-catching group.
It... Everybody's there.
Everybody's still, uh... Yeah.
Everybody's healthy, or at least relatively.
Enough, such that we shouldn't have the same concerns as we had earlier in the, Earlier in the season.
So, uh, I don't know if this is gonna be a case Where, if, whether, it's not just from Baker Mayfield himself.
But also from Bucky Irving and his usage, and we'll talk about that here in a second.
But I do wonder if its once we get into February or sulike, Early spring or somewhere, that the reports start to come out of, Well, Baker Mayfield, he was dealing with XYZ..." Yeah.
...
In terms of injuries.
Bucky Irving dealing with blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."
And I think that's where, Kind of where we're at right now, just because Outside of that, It just, this is not the same quarterback that we saw last year.
And I get it, it was Liam Cohen running this offense and helping out with some of the Efficiency, play-calling, and all of that.
But still, Uh, it's just, there's something else that's kind of plaguing this entire team at this point That's kind of giving us the production we're seeing as of right now.
Yeah, we'll have a lot of time over the next few weeks to talk about the big picture Stuff, like, is Todd Bowles gonna keep his job?
Well, we'll see how the season ends.
You know how much of the play-calling is at fault for this.
But I totally agree with you that, at some point, we're going to get a report at the end of the year, Well, Baker Mayfield was never really healthy."
And I, I think that's probably a big part of this, too.
I think it could also just be that he's a Streaky player.
You know, he's a guy prone to ups and downs, And, I think we're seeing a lot of downs here lately.
And, you know, the wide receiver room, it's like everybody's back.
But it almost feels like they don't quite know what they want to do with everybody back.
You know?
Jalen McMillan runs more routes than Emeka.
Egbuka today, and McMillan is a guy who is not gonna lead to, Like, smO- I like McMillan as a player.
I like him as, Like a speed-lid lifting number three.
Mm-hmm.
But he's not going to be a guy who will help this offense find a lot of consistency.
And today, when Baker Mayfield, according to Next Gen Stats, Got the ball out of his hands in under two and a half seconds.
He was 11 of 13 for 66 yards and a touchdown.
Any time he held it longer than that, 7 of 13, and the interception that lost the game.
It just feels like if the play goes a long time, Not a lot of good stuff is happening, other than Baker taking off and scrambling at times.
So, it just feels like a very herky-jerky passing game.
