Buccaneers' Baker Mayfield Gives New Comments on Falcons HC Kevin Stefanski

Quarterback Baker Mayfield has long been known for the massive chip on his shoulder. Every since his career was revitalized with the the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beginning in 2023, he's had plenty of time to prove his former teams in the Cleveland Browns and Carolina Panthers wrong, and he's done with with his trademark moxie. There's one bit of trash talk, however, that he surprisingly appears to be walking back.

Mayfield made waves on social media this offseason after his former head coach, Kevin Stefanski, was hired to head the Atlanta Falcons. Stefanski coached Mayfield with the Cleveland Browns and was a part of the group that helped bring Deshaun Watson to Cleveland to replace Mayfield — so naturally, when Mayfield heard he was set to coach the Falcons on social media, he had some choice words for his new division rival:

Failed is quite the reach pal. Still waiting on a text/call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage. Can’t wait to see you twice a year, Coach. https://t.co/jUUsYkvlOC
— Baker Mayfield (@bakermayfield) January 20, 2026

"Still waiting on a text/call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage," Mayfield wrote on X in January. "Can’t wait to see you twice a year, Coach."

Naturally, those fiery words drew a lot of attention on social media, and they also garnered a response from Stefanski himself. It's been just a month since Mayfield made those comments, but in an interesting turn of events, he seems to be distancing himself from that rhetoric on social media.

Mayfield walks back Stefanski comments in new interview

Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) talks with head coach Kevin Stefanski during training camp | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Mayfield recently did an interview with Sports Illustrated, and in that interview, he seemed a bit less passionate about his stance of Stefanski.

“There’s stuff there, but it’s not like it’s beef.”

Baker Mayfield discussed his relationship with Kevin Stefanski 👀 pic.twitter.com/Ml5TnVbM7z
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) February 21, 2026

“There’s stuff there, but it’s not like it’s beef,” Mayfield said in the interview. “We’ve worked together, anytime you know somebody, you want to beat them, whether it’s a good or bad relationship... Not a revenge game of a sense of Atlanta, but we lost the division for the first time since four or five years, so, any divisional game will be a revenge game, I guess."

Mayfield's stance is interesting, given how intense his initial comment was. Saying that there's no beef between the two of them is one thing, but his initial post discussing Stefanski not texting him after he was "shipped off like a piece of garbage" certainly seems to carry some vitriol.

Mayfield will get to see Stefanski twice a year from here on out when the Bucs play the Falcons for their NFC South divisional games. It certainly seemed like he had a lot of bulletin board material for those games, but maybe he doesn't carry too much of a grudge against Stefanski after all — he does for the Falcons, though, as a divisional rival, and that may just be all he needs.

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