Buccaneers former first-round pick praises QB Baker Mayfield's leadership

The Buccaneers caught a lot of teams by surprise last season, finishing with a 9-8 record and defeating the Philadelphia Eagles in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

A big reason for Tampa Bay's success in 2023 was thanks to quarterback Baker Mayfield, who looked rejuvenated throwing for a career-high 4,044 yards and 28 touchdowns. He also set a career-high completion rate (64.3 percent).

Defensive tackle Calijah Kancey, the team's first-round pick a year ago, didn't have much to compare it to as a rookie, but he knows leadership when he sees it.

"Baker is a guy who you want to run through a wall for," Kancey said on "The Jim Rome Show." "He's a guy that's going to leave it out on the line. He's very competitive. He's a great guy overall, helps out in the community. He's willing to give his lives to anyone on the team or anyone in general. He's just a baller. He's a dawg."

Mayfield's improved play and leadership haven't been overlooked by the rest of the team, either. This offseason, the Buccaneers gave the 29-year-old a three-year contract extension worth up to $100 million with $50 million guaranteed.

It was a well-deserved payday for the former No. 1 overall pick in 2018 as he far from exceeded expectations in his fourth stop in the league the past three years.

It would have been difficult to find anyone who thought Mayfield would have the season he did a year ago.

Now, Tampa Bay hopes the 2023 season wasn't an anomaly and its long-term investment in Mayfield will pay off.

Only time will tell if it will, but Mayfield has never lacked confidence and that's unlikely to change after being named to his first Pro Bowl and finishing third in the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year voting.