While Baker Mayfield will fancy his chances of being the Tampa Bay Buccaneers starter in Week One of the NFL season, he has the unenviable task of filling the shoes of Tom Brady in the wake of his retirement.
With their Super Bowl triumph in 2021 feeling like a distant memory, the Bucs face what looks like a long road back to championship contention, and they will have to do it without the greatest quarterback to play the game.
Seven-time NFL champion Brady did regress in 2022 – his 23rd season in the league – but he still played well enough to steer Tampa through a weak NFC South to make the playoffs with a losing record, where they were blown out in the wildcard round in January by the Dallas Cowboys.
Brady announced his retirement on February 1 – one year on from calling time on his stellar career for the first time before reneging on the decision and returning to the Bucs – leaving huge uncertainty over the quarterback situation at Raymond James Stadium.
Mayfield, who signed a one-year $4million contract with the Bucs, admits he cannot and will not try to be a like-for-like replacement for the NFL legend.
"Listen, I'm never going to be Tom Brady," Mayfield told ESPN on Monday. "There's a reason he's won so many Super Bowls. He's the greatest of all time. There's no doubt about that. I'm not going to try to be Tom. I'm going to be me. That's what has gotten me to this point. We're going to do it differently, but that's what makes this league so special. Everybody puts their own touch on it."
Former number one overall pick Mayfield endured a rollercoaster 2022, with the Cleveland Browns shipping him out to the Carolina Panthers after signing Deshaun Watson. Mayfield's stay at Bank of America Stadium was a miserable one, with the 27-year-old featuring in just seven games before being cut.
The LA Rams took Mayfield off waivers in December and he played the final five games of the season, leading the team to a comeback win against the Las Vegas Raiders in his first start and he also starred in a blowout win over the hapless Denver Broncos.
But back-to-back defeats were a fitting way to end a crushing year for Mayfield, with the team that drafted him giving up on him before a nightmare stint with the Panthers saw his stock plummet further. A new season with a new team is a chance to rebuild and Mayfield admits he is eager to put his recent experiences behind him.
"That's definitely been a struggle," Mayfield said. "There were times where, kind of searching in the mirror thinking, 'All right. What's next? What do I need to do?' But you've got to relate it back to your success. If I can review all the situations and experiences I've had and trust in those, and learn from them and not just harp on the negative stuff but take away just a little thing each time, that's how you continue to grow.
"And I still believe that all the experiences I've gone through happened for a reason, and it's going to help me in the long run. It's not how I drew my career up by any means. If I was to tell you how it would go based on the plan, I wouldn't have said I'd put on three different uniforms in the year 2022, but that's how it happens. You've got to learn from it, roll with the punches, trust in God's plan.
"But I've grown a lot. I appreciate all the things that have happened throughout my journey. It's helped me get here today. I want to play this as long as I can so I've learned a lot of lessons along the way."
