Buccaneers' OC Compares Baker Mayfield to Seahawks' Geno Smith
Tampa Bay Buccaneers' QB Baker Mayfield has dealt with his fair share of adversity since taking the Cleveland Browns to the playoffs just a few years ago. He got injured, that same Browns team let him go, spent time between the Panthers and Rams and never found a place to seemingly call home to get his career back on the right path.
The resurrection of Baker's career as a starting quarterback in the league has been through its' ups and downs, but he seemingly has found that in Tampa Bay.
Prior to the season, the thought of pairing Baker Mayfield with offensive coordinator Dave Canales was that the latter would be an intricate piece to rewriting the perception of the former. The season started off great, then there was the down period, and now, we are seeing the fruits of that labor pay off as Mayfield and Canales both are hitting their strides at the most important time.
Perhaps the biggest thought with the Canales/Baker pairing was the work that Canales was able to do with Seattle Seahawks' QB Geno Smith getting him from league backup QB to a surefire starting quarterback in the NFL after pretty much being written off as not.
Canales spoke on the similarities of Smith's and Mayfield's career when speaking with the media on Thursday.
"Absolutely. [There are] a lot of parallels there. It really speaks to the character of those two guys – the belief in themselves, the belief in their abilities, the people around them who are speaking life into them. While I know some people might use negative narratives to help fuel them, I think the both of those guys are aware of those things and so they both have that real chip on their shoulder. You love having guys in that type of position who can handle that – some guys can't handle that. That's part of it, but it's not the whole story. The whole story is their belief in themselves. For me, I just kind of come alongside and try and reaffirm who they are – reaffirm the bigger picture of who they are outside of the lines, because I truly believe that, as you strengthen as a person, as your character is strengthened, then everything else doesn't shake you as much. Of course, pairing it up with, 'Guys, you're both veteran quarterbacks… You've seen every coverage, you've seen every pass concept with the different coordinators you've been with, so don't make it harder than it needs to be. Trust what you see, be confident on that back foot.' The back foot tells the whole story about what it was. You saw Baker last week – he's solid and confident on that back foot [and] the ball is coming out. That's the same thing that Geno was doing while we were in Seattle. Both guys, yeah, very much so have that similar attribute there."
The work that Mayfield has put into getting back to this level has been great to see and for the Buccaneers it couldn't be a more welcome sight as they look to the end of the regular season strong in the hopes of making the playoffs.
With the unknowns throughout the season on what direction the team would move forward in terms of their quarterback plans, it now seems that they have the answer right in front of them with Baker Mayfield.
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