Baker Mayfield. Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Buccaneers' Baker Mayfield was told to 'button up' earlier in career

By Zac Wassink | Last updated 3/24/23

New Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield seemingly won't be changing for anybody else during his NFL career.

"There’s been times where I’ve been told to try and button up and do a certain thing, but that’s just not who I am," Mayfield explained during the latest edition of the Buccaneers' "Salty Dogs" podcast, as shared by the JoeBucsFan website. "And that’s not how I play the best. So I’m going to be myself and have fun while doing it."

Mayfield was an outspoken star who won the Heisman Trophy for the 2017 season and who famously planted an Oklahoma Sooners flag in the middle of the Ohio State Buckeyes' field following a victory:

The Cleveland Browns then made Mayfield the first pick of the 2018 NFL Draft, and Cleveland fans thoroughly enjoyed when he would "wake up feeling dangerous" and slip rap lyrics into news conferences as long as he was guiding the team to wins:

Baker’s been dropping rap lyrics into his press conferences @bakermayfield

(h/t @Browns) pic.twitter.com/n7vY4evuTX
— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) November 23, 2020

By January 2022, however, Mayfield's relationship with head coach Kevin Stefanski allegedly deteriorated until Cleveland acquired star signal-caller Deshaun Watson from the Houston Texans in March of that year. After Mayfield flopped with the Carolina Panthers last fall, he played well enough with the Los Angeles Rams late in the season to secure a one-year contract with the Buccaneers that reportedly could be worth up to $8.5M.

Mayfield has admitted he is "never going to be Tom Brady" for the Buccaneers, and he has also insisted he's grown following all he endured over the past year. The 27-year-old apparently isn't going to hide his true personality as he battles with 2021 second-round draft pick Kyle Trask for the Tampa Bay starting gig this summer.

"You know, however you win that competition, you’ve got to be yourself," Mayfield said about the upcoming challenge. "You’ve got to be authentic. You can’t force it. So, I’m just going to be myself — be that best version of myself I can be and push forward and try to compete."

Mayfield can't have stints with the Browns, Panthers and Rams back, but he potentially can learn from them to become his best NFL self. If he loses the QB1 job to Trask by September, he may find that his days in the league are numbered.

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