Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield showed serious resilience in Sunday’s 34-20 win over the Packers in Green Bay. He overcame an early sack-fumble that led directly to a Packers touchdown to throw for 381 yards and four touchdowns, leading Tampa Bay to a much-needed win — the team’s third straight.

After becoming the first visiting quarterback to finish with a perfect 158.3 passer rating at Lambeau Field, Mayfield was the talk of the NFL world. And on Wednesday, he was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week.

Your NFC Offensive Player of the Week 👨‍🍳👏 pic.twitter.com/BOhYefPPHx

— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) December 20, 2023

Mayfield was absolutely electric for Tampa Bay in its win over Green Bay, completing those four touchdown passes to four different receivers. He started with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Mike Evans in the second quarter. Then, he really took things to a new level in the second half.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

He threw touchdown passes on each of the Bucs’ first three possessions of the second half, finding Rachaad White for a 26-yard score early in the third quarter before capping off the quarter with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Ko Kieft.

Finally, to ice the game, Mayfield connected with David Moore for a 52-yard touchdown to put the team up 14 with 6:30 to go. Tampa Bay actually only had one more possession after that, and it ended with Mayfield taking a knee from Victory Formation.

The veteran quarterback was absolutely masterful on Sunday, and now he takes home weekly honors for the third time in his career. He was AFC Offensive Player of the Week for the Browns in Week 7 of the 2020 season, then he won NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors in Week 14 of the 2022 season after joining the Rams late in the week and leading them to a comeback win over the Raiders.

Baker Mayfield is the third Buc to win weekly honors this week, joining Jake Camarda (NFC Special Teams Player of the Week in Week 2) and Antoine Winfield Jr. (NFC Defensive Player of the Week in Week 13).

Baker Mayfield’s Career Revival Continues As He Prepares For Playoff Push

The recognition for his big day in Green Bay is just the latest chapter in the career revival that Baker Mayfield has experienced with the Bucs in 2023. He has completed 63.5% of his passes for 3,315 yards and 24 touchdowns to just eight interceptions this year. He also has 152 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

But most importantly, Baker Mayfield has the Bucs in position to win the division for a third straight year and make the playoffs for a fourth straight.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and OC Dave Canales – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Tampa Bay is 7-7 and leads the NFC South via tiebreaker heading into Week 15. With remaining games against the Jaguars, Saints and Panthers, a 2-1 finish likely does the trick. And it would give the only quarterback in the NFC South with a playoff win another chance to play on the league’s biggest stage.

Baker Mayfield is no stranger to that stage, as the 2020 season saw him become the first quarterback to lead the Browns to a playoff win since the 1994 postseason. The thing is, it wasn’t clear if Mayfield would ever make it back to that stage again.

After an injury-plagued 2021 season, Mayfield was cast aside by Cleveland in favor of Deshaun Watson. He split 2022 between the Panthers and Rams, then found his way to the Bucs this past offseason.

Mayfield has been a bit up-and-down this season, but his overall body of work looks impressive, especially given that Tampa Bay took a while to break in this new offense under a first-time play-caller in offensive coordinator Dave Canales. Limiting turnovers and tossing 24 touchdowns — so far — constitutes quite the bounce-back year for a player who is on his fourth team in the last year or so.

In fact, talk is growing stronger and stronger that Baker Mayfield could have a future with the Bucs beyond 2023. Tampa Bay once looked destined to turn the reins over to a new quarterback under a new head coach in 2024, but the recent winning streak and push for the postseason may give decision-makers no choice but to ink the former No. 1 pick to a new contract for 2024 and possibly beyond.

Time will tell, but his dominant Week 15 at Lambeau and the ensuing NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors make for quite the notch on Baker Mayfield’s belt as his career renaissance builds to a crescendo.