Baker Mayfield has dealt with constant turnover in his eight NFL seasons, averaging a new offensive play-caller each year, but he is quickly turning the narrative to one of the NFL's great stories of perseverance.
Officially, Mayfield has worked with seven offensive play-callers, some of which were also head coaches: Todd Haley, Freddie Kitchens, Kevin Stefanski, Ben McAdoo, Sean McVay, Dave Canales, Liam Coen and now Josh Grizzard.
The early portion of Mayfield's career was anything but smooth, but he has found pockets of success under all of those names other than McAdoo in Carolina. As he turns from a young, unpolished quarterback into a grizzled veteran, Mayfield is proving the constant change no longer affects him.
The 30-year-old proved doubters wrong when Coen replaced Canales, who left to become the Panthers' head coach. Through two games, Mayfield has already stamped out any doubt that moving from Coen to Grizzard, who had never called plays before this season, would slow his ascent into the NFL's upper echelon of quarterbacks.
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A battered Mayfield fought through pain on "Monday Night Football," leading the Buccaneers down the field for a game-winning touchdown drive on the road in Houston. The victory gave Mayfield his third 2-0 start in as many seasons in Tampa Bay.
Here's a look at Mayfield's performance against the Texans and his history of game-winning drives.
Baker Mayfield stats vs. Texans
Final score: Buccaneers 20, Texans 19
- Comp/Att: 25/38 (65.8%)
- Passing yards: 215
- Touchdowns: 2
- Interceptions: 0
- Sacks: 4
- Rush att: 3
- Rush yards: 33
- Rush TD: 0
Mayfield didn't post the efficiency he may have wanted with 215 yards on 38 pass attempts in Houston, but he showed up in critical moments against a physical Texans defense with two touchdowns and another interception-free game.
The former No. 1 pick made plays on the ground as well, rushing for 33 yards on three attempts. Mayfield's biggest play, by far, came on fourth-and-10, when he took off running for a first down to extend the fourth quarter drive that would win the game for the Buccaneers.
Mayfield absorbed hits and seemed affected by the blows between plays, but he never looked tired once the ball was snapped. The veteran's energy kept the Buccaneers believing even when Tampa Bay's offense came to a halt, and it paid off in a major way over the final two minutes.
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Baker Mayfield game-winning drives
With Monday's win, Mayfield now has 14 career game-winning drives and 12 fourth quarter comebacks.
Mayfield has actually engineered a game-winning drive in each of his last three regular season games. He led a fourth quarter comeback against the Saints in Week 18 last season and found Emeka Egbuka for a game-winning touchdown against the Falcons in Week 1 this season. Given more than two minutes to go down the field and win the game in Houston, Mayfield didn't appear rattled for a second.
Six of Mayfield's 14 game-winning drives have come in a Buccaneers uniform, after he posted only three in his final three seasons with the Browns. Mayfield ranks 11th among all current starters in game-winning drives and has more than Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts -- with the caveat that Jackson and Hurts often play from ahead, not from behind.
After a 40-touchdown season and impressive start to 2025, the question might soon become whether Mayfield is ready to enter the "elite" category of quarterbacks. Consensus says the NFL's four best quarterbacks are Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow, in whichever order. The gap between Mayfield and No. 5, whoever he may be, appears to be shrinking.
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Who is the Buccaneers' offensive coordinator?
The Buccaneers promoted Josh Grizzard to offensive coordinator after Coen left to become head coach of the Jaguars in the offseason.
Grizzard, just 35, has worked his way up the ladder naturally, starting as an intern with the Panthers in 2012 and returning to the NFL as a quality control coach with the Dolphins in 2017 after a stint at Duke. Grizzard was held over in Miami by both Brian Flores and Mike McDaniel, but he left the Dolphins in 2024 to become the Buccaneers' passing game coordinator.
Once Coen left for Jacksonville, Todd Bowles opted to stay in-house and give Mayfield some sense of continuity with Grizzard.
While some saw Mayfield as the product of an ideal situation when he found success in Cleveland in 2020, it's looking more and more as though he is in the ideal situation in Tampa Bay. The sample size for Grizzard is admittedly small, but at the current rate, his profile is in position to be elevated by Mayfield the same way Canales' and Coen's were (even if head coaching buzz might be far too premature).