Replacing the greatest quarterback of all-time is no small ask. But it’s exactly what Tampa Bay Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht was tasked with after the retirement of Tom Brady.
First off, there’s very few players in the league’s history that can replace Brady at quarterback. Then factor in the fact the Bucs were looking at eating roughly $80 million of dead cap space as well, and the list of potential replacements grows smaller. You can’t afford to sign a high-dollar while eating that much cap space. So Licht had to find a high-risk/high reward quarterback amongst the available free agents. Enter Baker Mayfield.
“Not many quarterbacks would be willing to walk into the situation where you had the greatest of all time, Tom Brady, leave,” Licht stated about Mayfield, via the JoeBucsFan website. “And there is no doubt about that, he was the greatest of all time.”
Mayfield was coming off arguably the worst year or so of his career. Leaving Cleveland, struggling in Carolina, and finally ending up with the Rams. Rough patch for the former first rounder. But a perfect candidate for Licht and the Buccaneers.
Mayfield went on to lead the Pewter Pirates to their third straight division title, including a blowout of their arch nemesis the Philadelphia Eagles. This silenced the doubters who had the Bucs pegged as falling to the bottom of the division following Brady’s departure.
“For a quarterback to come in and be secure with himself and be confident that he can lead this team to wins and he circled us. ‘I’m going there because I like that team and this is where I’m going to revive my career.’ And that’s exactly what he did.”
Mayfield was everything Licht thought he’d be, and everything the experts said he wouldn’t.
So here we are a year later, and wouldn’t you know it, the experts are predicting another bad season for the Mayfield led Bucs. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
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