Baker Mayfield, a quarterback known for keeping receipts, cashed in on some history with the Bucs versus his ex-team, the Carolina Panthers, in a 48-14 victory at Raymond James Stadium.

On Sunday, Mayfield completed 84.4% of his passes for 359 yards and a season-high five touchdowns, which matched his personal best from his 2020 season in Cleveland. With those yards, he set a new career high for single-season passing yards at 4,279 and tied an all-time franchise record set by NFL legend Tom Brady.

“He really played a heck of a ballgame, intelligently,” Bucs head coach Todd Bowles said. “We didn’t turn it over offensively. We were very good on third down and he controlled the ball. Spread it around. [He] got everybody touches and he played a good ball game.”

Baker Mayfield, A Panthers Castaway Turned Bucs Star

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

Before Baker Mayfield became one of the faces of the Bucs, he spent a short stint with the Carolina Panthers. 

Back during his time with the Panthers during the first half of the 2022 season, Baker went just 1-5 as a starter before becoming a defensive lineman in practice on occasion on Carolina’s scout team. With that, the former No. 1 overall pick’s time as a starter in the league seemed to be in jeopardy before joining the Los Angeles Rams off the waiver wire at the end of the 2022 campaign to play for Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who was an L.A. offensive assistant at that time.

Since becoming the Bucs starter, he’s beaten the Panthers four straight times, and on Sunday, he did so in a dominant fashion with two touchdowns to future Hall of Famer Mike Evans, two scores to rookie receiver Jalen McMillan and tight end Payne Durham’s first career TD.

“It starts with the guys up front,” Mayfield said about his offensive line. “I thought they protected extremely well. Obviously, our pass schemes, we had some guys running pretty open so that goes to the staff and then guys making plays. Everybody was detailed. Obviously, we’d like to have a few more touchdowns in the first half than settling for field goals but yeah, guys were on point.”

Bucs WR Mike Evans, RB Bucky Irving and QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

This game marked Mayfield’s eighth game this season where he had three or more passing touchdowns. With that, he tied Tom Brady (2021) for the most in a single season of any quarterback in Bucs history. That’s far from where the historic day ended, though. Sunday marked Mayfield’s fourth game in 2024, throwing for four or more touchdowns, tying him with reigning MVP Lamar Jackson for the most in the league in 2024. 

“It was about starting fast,” Mayfield said. “It was sloppy ball on the offensive side of things in Carolina so we wanted to make sure we corrected that and I thought our guys did just that. [We had] just a little bit of few hiccups here and there. We’ll look back on the tape and figure that out but for the most part, everybody was dialed in.”

According to Next Gen Stats, Mayfield completed all 12 of his pass attempts against the blitz for 90 yards and five touchdowns. Mayfield’s five touchdowns against the blitz were the most in a game since Patrick Mahomes in Week 1, 2022. Across all dropbacks, Mayfield generated +23.4 EPA, his most in a single game in his career.

According to Elias Sports, Mayfield became the fifth player ever with 350+ passing yards, five-or-more touchdown passes, a passer rating of 150.0+ and completion percentage of 80.0+ in a game, joining Tom Brady (twice), Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger and Deshaun Watson.

The Bucs offense soared to new heights against the Panthers, scoring the most points at home in franchise history as Mayfield had a near-perfect game with a 153 QB rating. Mayfield now has 39 touchdown passes on the season and needs four more to top Brady (43 in 2021) for the most in franchise history.