Ryan Leaf Loves How Baker Mayfield Has Dealt With Adversity

Ryan Leaf was on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football program on Wednesday where he talked about the whole league, including the Bucs’ quarterback situation. While there’s definitely not a direct comparison with Leaf dealing with his personal issues to Baker Mayfield bouncing around four different teams in a year, Leaf does admire how Mayfield has been able to handle his own adversity after getting traded from the Browns to the Panthers, getting cut by Carolina and getting claimed by the Rams for the rest of the season.

Signing with the Bucs in March meant that Mayfield is on his fourth team in one calendar year.

How Mayfield finished with the Rams in an offense that will be similar with the Bucs leads Leaf to believe that Mayfield should be the Week 1 starter.

“I love Baker Mayfield,” Leaf said. “I think what he did in LA a year ago – I was a bit surprised that he didn’t stay with how well he did in Sean McVay’s offense. Loved what he did late in the year. I called the Broncos-Rams Christmas Day massacre and I have not seen a guy in Sean McVay’s offense play that well with the bootleg, using the tight end, going down the field. He had complete control. I like him to be the starter in Tampa Bay and I think he can do a good enough job to make them a possible playoff contender within that division.

“I know they invested in Kyle Trask with the draft. I hope they get the chance to see what he looks like, but I like Baker Mayfield. I love how he’s kind of overcome the adversity in how the Cleveland Browns and that city and that team treated him and kind of just threw him out and how he’s battled back. I really like how he’s taken care of himself and handled his business.”

Career Parallels Between Ryan Leaf And Baker Mayfield

NFL Network’s Sara Walsh asked Ryan Leaf about what it does for Baker Mayfield mentally going in knowing that this may be his last chance to succeed as a starting quarterback, especially being a former number one overall pick that has pressure to prove himself.

Leaf, who was drafted second and played for four teams in five seasons, including a stint with the Bucs in 2001, can relate to Mayfield’s path to a degree.

“Usually when you’re the first or second overall pick you probably get more chances than you probably should in some instances,” Leaf said. “I was on my fourth team, he’s now on his fourth team. My last stop was with Mike Holmgren in Seattle. You start hear the whispers, you start to think about what’s your legacy and what have you contributed. This must be me? Why am I on my fourth team in my fifth year?

“It’s very similar with Baker Mayfield. He has a ton of confidence and there hasn’t been maybe the same type of dumpster fire of a career that I contributed to so much more, so I may have had some different ways I was dealing with things in my head. He still seems very confident and some of the last times he was on the football field he was very successful, so that can breed confidence for a guy that kind of lives in that role. I think he’ll feel fine, but I will say this – you usually don’t see first overall draft picks be 10, 12, 15-year guys as a backup somewhere. We don’t see that more these days.

For the whole segment on Good Morning Football with Leaf, Walsh, former Buc Gerald McCoy, Jason McCourty and Peter Schrager, check out this link. The segment on the Bucs and Mayfield begins at  4:24.