Baker Mayfield Isn’t Moving The National Needle – JoeBucsFan.com – Tampa Bay Bucs Blog, Buccaneers News

Regular readers here know Joe obsesses about all things Bucs 24/7, which includes soaking in all kinds of NFL radio, podcast and TV chatter.

So it really struck Joe that the Bucs signing big-name quarterback Baker Mayfield on Wednesday barely moved the needle on SiriusXM NFL Radio. It generated barely more than a passing mention there on multiple shows that aired on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Even former Bucs general manager Mark Dominik, while co-hosting The Blitz on Friday, didn’t raise the topic during the three-hour show. And Dominik loves to talk Bucs.

Show after show had no segment on Mayfield. No Buccaneers players interviewed. No former Mayfield teammate on the air for feedback.

The Bucs being absent from the spotlight happened on many other networks, Joe observed. Joe even dialed into Cleveland media and found little.

When entertaining loud mouth Stephen A. Smith of BSPN was told of the Mayfield signing soon after news broke on the air and was asked for feedback, his response was, “So?”

Damn, interest in the Buccaneers has plummeted outside the Tampa Bay area. The Brady era of national relevance is gone. (Thankfully, Bucs interest is alive and well on these pages across the local region. Joe can’t speak for other sites or the twice-weekly subscription community newspaper.)

Lots of Bucs fans yearn for night games and late-afternoon contests. But after last week’s reaction to Mayfield, Joe is convinced the Bucs will get only two night games.

Between uncertainty at starting quarterback (TV network execs will want no part of Kyle Trask this year), the Bucs playing the weak AFC South and the team desiring a run-heavy offense, Joe doesn’t see the Bucs moving any national needles unless they can get to Halloween with a winning record.

From 2013 through 2019, seven consecutive seasons, the Bucs were 3-5 or worse at the season’s halfway mark — with four different head coaches.

Joe is convinced the Bucs must avoid that level of stink this season to convince observers that the post-Brady Bucs are not picking up where they were in 2019. (Yes, Joe knows the Bucs were 3-5 last year with Brady.)