Baker Mayfield’s MVP Candidacy Has Begun

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Jeffrey Jones/PR

It’s time for Scott Reynolds’ 2-Point Conversion post-game column, which features two statements, two questions and two predictions based on the latest Bucs game.

Tampa Bay gets a primetime win (finally!) over the Texans in Houston in a hard-fought, come-from-behind, 20-19 victory on Monday Night Football. The Bucs improved to 2-0 thanks to some gritty scrambles by Baker Mayfield and tough, tackle-breaking runs from Bucky Irving and Rachaad White as Tampa Bay controlled the clock and ran for 169 yards on a tough Texans defense. The team did lose defensive tackle Calijah Kancey and right tackle Luke Goedeke to injury on Monday night – with Kancey out for the year with a torn pectoral muscle.

2 BIG STATEMENTS


STATEMENT 1. Baker Mayfield’s MVP Candidacy Has Begun

If you were to ask him, Baker Mayfield probably doesn’t want to be the NFL MVP.

The only MVP award he would likely even consider accepting would be the Super Bowl MVP after helping Tampa Bay win a Super Bowl. Mayfield is as team-oriented as they come.

But the reality is that NFL MVPs are usually quarterbacks on very good teams – teams that go deep into the playoffs. And that’s where the Bucs want to go – deep in the postseason.

A 2-0 start to the 2025 season is a good step in that direction, and both of Tampa Bay’s wins have come from the absolute toughness and grit that Mayfield has displayed in leading the Bucs to a pair of game-winning touchdown drives in the final minute at Atlanta and at Houston.

Before a nationwide audience on Monday Night Football, Mayfield’s MVP candidacy was born in Week 2. With a pair of touchdowns – now five on the season along with zero turnovers – through two games, he has truly become the “Better Mayfield” he talks about becoming in his famous Popeye’s Chicken commercials. His defining moment was a 15-yard scramble on fourth-and-10 on the game-winning drive – all while doing so on a bum leg that he hurt and re-injured a few times in the game.

Mayfield was the hero in Houston, and the entire nation took note. He doesn’t just win from the pocket. Mayfield scrambles. He dives. He guts out the yardage he needs. He moves the chains – and he talks trash afterwards.

At this point, if you don’t like Mayfield or appreciate his game, you must be a fan of the Falcons, Saints or the Panthers. Or a fan of the Texans.

When Mayfield took off running for that first down on fourth down, he not only had the entire team on his back, but also the entire Bucs fan base. You could feel him will his team to win.

Running backs Bucky Irving and Rachaad White, who were running hard all night and were breaking tackles, seemed to run a little harder and break a few more tackles on that final drive. Mayfield’s toughness and gritty playing style was rubbing off on the entire team during that final drive, which was capped off by a 2-yard touchdown by White with six seconds left.

Hopefully Monday night’s epic performance from a battle-weary, beaten and bruised Mayfield thrust him into the national spotlight that he deserves to be in. He should have been in the MVP conversation a year ago after throwing 41 touchdown passes and leading Tampa Bay to 10 wins and yet another NFC South title.

If that wasn’t good enough, guess what? Mayfield is on pace to throw for 42 touchdowns this season. More importantly, the Bucs are 2-0 and don’t even have their top two offensive tackles and two of their best receivers yet.

Look out for Mayfield and his men.


STATEMENT 2. Bucs Defense Is Playing Better Than You Think

As I wrote about in Bucs Mailbag on Tuesday, Todd Bowles’ defense has really made some strides in the first two games this season. I know, you’re griping about the lack of interceptions and takeaways in general – none in the first two games. And no one had sacks by Greg Gaines and Tykee Smith on their bingo cards on Monday night. We were hoping – and perhaps expecting – outside linebackers Haason Reddick and Yaya Diaby to erupt for those sacks instead.

But outside of the lack of splash plays – sacks and takeaways – Bowles’ defense is playing fundamentally better. Tampa Bay has the league’s fifth-best run defense (76.5 yards per game), the 15th-ranked total defense (312 yards per game) and the 13th-best scoring defense (19.5 points per game). Houston was held to just 2-of-9 (22.2%) on third downs and was 0-for-1 on fourth down.

While neither SirVocea Dennis nor Lavonte David played well at the linebacker level against the Texans, the secondary held up well and allowed just one passing touchdown due to tighter coverage. That came on a Nico Collins touchdown on the opening drive with Zyon McCollum right there. Still, a great throw and catch beats great coverage.

The only other Texans points that came outside of their initial 10 in the first quarter were a result of a blocked punt deep inside Bucs territory and on a 53-yard punt return by Jaylin Noel that should have been called back due to a block in the back on Josh Hayes. Those two special teams busts led to nine more points in the second half by Houston.

Smith and Pro Bowl nose tackle Vita Vea are easily the best players on defense right now, and I believe the Bucs’ four-man rush will improve in time – even without defensive tackle Calijah Kancey. There are some big games ahead for Reddick and Diaby, along with some interceptions in the coming weeks.

Bowles’ unit isn’t the weakness that it was all last year when the offense had to score 30 points per game to really give the Buccaneers a chance at winning. Now this team is winning close, one-score games because it has more balance. The defense is keeping up its end of the bargain on gamedays.

“We’re showing a lot of grit and resiliency right now,” Bowles said of his defense through the team’s 2-0 start. “We haven’t had the killer instinct yet, but we’re working toward that. As far as the interceptions being dropped, the only one that killed me Lavonte’s because he pretty much handed it to him. That kind of hurt my heart a little bit. He’ll hear about it all week.”

2 PROBING QUESTIONS

QUESTION 1. What The Hell Is Going On With The Bucs’ Special Teams?

Who knows? Special teams were a disaster in Houston. Not only did Tampa Bay fail to do much in the return game on Monday night, usually reliable kicker Chase McLaughlin had a 38-yard field goal doink off the right upright. That’s two missed field goals and a missed extra point from “Money” McLaughlin, who may be feeling a little broke right now.

Compounding matters on special teams was a blocked punt from Riley Dixon that we’ve all seen coming now for two weeks due to his long, slow wind up at age 32. Both the Falcons and the Texans came close to blocking one, and Houston did in fact get in there with a key block in the fourth quarter that nearly lead to a Texans win.

The 53-yard punt return by Jaylin Noel in the fourth quarter was aided by two missed block in the back calls by a vision-impaired officiating crew, but there were several missed tackle attempts by the Bucs, too. It’s rare that a team can overcome so many calamities on special teams in one game and still prevail, but that’s what happened. Tampa Bay got lucky this time, but special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey needs to make some serious corrections during a short week so these errors don’t happen again.

And McLaughlin needs to go back to being “Money” starting Sunday in the Bucs’ home opener versus the Jets.

QUESTION 2. Is Todd Bowles Losing Faith In SirVocea Dennis?

No, he’s not. Don’t take my word for it. I asked the Bucs head coach himself if he benched SirVocea Dennis at the end of the game during Tuesday morning’s press conference.

“No, we did not bench SirVocea at the end of the game,” Todd Bowles said. “He didn’t play bad. There was miscommunication on the one that was a checkdown that involved quite a few people. As he gets his footing down and plays, we have full confidence in him that he’ll play better and he’ll be fine.”

For the second straight week, Dennis looked a little lost in coverage and took a bad angle when chasing down a running back out of the backfield. On Monday Night Football, it was Nick Chubb, who dashed for a 27-yard reception and rookie Woody Marks, who had a 37-yard catch-and-run. Dennis finished with four tackles, including a tackle for a loss, in addition to a QB hit on a well-executed blitz on third down in the fourth quarter that led to an incompletion and ultimately a punt.

It should be noted that Deion Jones came in for Dennis at the end of the game, and that was the case near the end of the Falcons game, too. Whether that was by premeditated and by design, or Bowles wanting to have Dennis calm down and watch a series from the sidelines is unknown. But Jones did have a sack that effectively ended the Texans’ two-point conversion attempt.

Bowles obviously believes in Dennis, but it will be interesting to see how long of a leash he gives him, and more importantly, how quickly Dennis can improve. Bowles was also a believer in former Bucs inside linebacker Devin White and ex-Bucs outside linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka. And he was too slow to hit the eject button on both of those players in previous years.

2 BOLD PREDICTIONS

PREDICTION 1. Rachaad White Will Be Back In Tampa Bay Next Year

Many of you might think that it’s automatic that Rachaad White will move on after this season with Bucky Irving having emerged as the lead running back in Tampa Bay. I’m not so sure. How much interest White gets in free agency next year will be determined by his production this season. If it continues to be anything like it was on Monday night with 65 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries (6.5 avg.), White could be in demand next March.

But one of those teams who will be interested in White – as long as the price is right – is Tampa Bay. Not only is White a great all-purpose threat as a runner, receiver and one of the game’s best pass protectors, but he’s also a team-first guy and a great locker room fit. He and Irving are very close friends, not cutthroat competitors. So why shouldn’t the Bucs think about keeping him and Irving together if the price is right?

And if White, who made an absolute hero play by diving for a Baker Mayfield fumble and taking a helmet to the ribs in the process, is being productive and feels valued, why wouldn’t he want to stay on a team that continually wins division championships and has become a Super Bowl contender? If Mike Alstott and Warrick Dunn could thrive together in Tampa Bay’s old WD-40 backfield from 1997-2001, why can’t the one-two punch of Irving and White continue to help the Bucs offense for years to come?

PREDICTION 2. Bucs Break Week 3 Jinx, Improve To 3-0

Tampa Bay has now started 2-0 for the fourth straight season under head coach Todd Bowles with the team’s 20-19 win at Houston. And it finally ended the primetime curse with a victory on Monday Night Football. But can the Bucs do something this week they haven’t been able to do since 2020, which is get a win in Week 3?

Tampa Bay was riding high from a big win at Detroit in Week 2 last year, returning home to face a winless Denver team with a rookie quarterback in Bo Nix. The Bucs may have taken the Broncos lightly, as they got ambushed and fell victim to a 27-6 defeat in Week 3.

Now the winless New York Jets come to Tampa Bay this week with backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor likely at the helm, as Justin Fields is in concussion protocol. Will history repeat itself again? Or will the Bucs have learned their lesson about Week 3 from a year ago? I predict a Bucs win on Sunday – despite the fact that Tampa Bay is banged up and will be wearing throwback jerseys from 1976 that have never seen a victory before.