Baker hungry to prove doubters wrong: Bucs still have 'key pieces' from SB win

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers enter the 2023 season with a lot of question marks after Tom Brady's retirement, but quarterback Baker Mayfield likes his team's chances of defying the naysayers.

"The key pieces that were a huge part of that Super Bowl run, and their success recently, they're all still here," Mayfield said, according to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. "It's a different hunger because, unfortunately, the narrative is that Tom's gone and we suck."

The Bucs turned to Mayfield - who beat out Kyle Trask for the QB1 role this year - after making the playoffs three times and winning one Super Bowl title with Brady under center from 2020-22. Tampa Bay won the NFC South last season despite its 8-9 record.

But many see the Buccaneers as the NFC South's fourth-best team to start the year, largely thanks to their quarterback situation. Mayfield, who signed with the club this past offseason to revive his career, wants to use the negative predictions to fuel his team.

"That's fortunate for us because that makes our guys have a different type of motivation they might have not had recently," the quarterback said. "It puts them into a different level of competition and trying to prove that our locker room is more than capable of keeping that success."

The Bucs are Mayfield's fourth team in the last three seasons. The 2018 No. 1 pick began his career with the Cleveland Browns and led the team to the playoffs once. However, he couldn't replicate that success in the following years and was traded to the Carolina Panthers during the 2022 offseason.

The 28-year-old started six games with the Panthers and four with the Los Angeles Rams in 2022, finishing the campaign with 10 touchdown passes against eight interceptions.

The Bucs visit the Minnesota Vikings in Week 1.