There was once a gunslinger who carved out a Hall of Fame NFL career by not being afraid to take risks, playing through various ailments, and doing whatever it took to win games and ignite his team. Across his 20 years in the league, Brett Favre set many passing records upon his retirement, starting 297 consecutive games and finishing with 71,838 passing yards, 508 passing touchdowns, and 336 interceptions.

That interception total remains the highest in league history and will likely stay that way forever, but that was the risk his coaches understood if it meant he also piled up touchdowns and quarterbacked his teams to the playoffs, which he did 12 times.

Times have changed, but there is a new gunslinger who has modeled himself in the same way since he joined the league’s ranks.

Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield.

When he was drafted in 2018, he even modeled Favre’s iconic draft photo and quoted him.

He has embodied his idol’s play-style throughout his seven seasons, but this year sticks out as Mayfield has produced more like the 1995-1998 Favre who won three straight MVP awards, a Super Bowl, and took the league by storm.

Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Coen has had his work cut out for him trying to balance Mayfield’s style of play, but Coen has brought the best out of his modern-day gunslinger.

Baker Mayfield Has Grown On And Off The Field Into A Franchise Quarterback

Hall of Fame Bucs DT Warren Sapp and Packers QB Brett Favre – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Like Bucs left tackle Tristan Wirfs, I am a bit too young to remember watching Brett Favre in green and gold throughout his legendary tenure with the Packers. However, growing up watching him as a Wisconsinite, I remember his final hurrah with the Vikings in 2009.

At 40 years old, Favre put together his most efficient season, setting career highs in completion percentage (68.4%) and passer rating (107.2) and career lows in interceptions across a full season (seven) and leading in the league in lowest interception percentage (1.3%).

Now, 15 years later, Baker Mayfield is having a similar year, albeit a lot younger than No. 4 was at the time. Just entering his prime at 29 years old, Mayfield has put together a year for the record books. He has set career highs across the board with 4,500 passing yards, 41 passing touchdowns, a 71.4% completion percentage, a 106.8 passer rating, and more than doubling his previous best in rushing yards with 378.

Bucs OC Liam Coen and QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Offensive coordinator Liam Coen has facilitated his quarterback’s improvement and evolution into a more balanced, mature quarterback. They form quite the duo, with Coen building out the offense around Mayfield and catering to his strengths.

“He’s gifted,” Coen said on the Bucs Total Access show earlier this week. “He can throw the football and play the game of football. He’s an unbelievable leader, but when we got hired here and we dove into this system, we explained how much more is going to be on his plate from a mental standpoint moving forward for this operation to really go where we want it to go.

“He took that head-on and studied his tail off week in and week out to put our team in a position to be successful every week. Really cool to see his growth in terms of just on and off the field, becoming a father, becoming a true franchise quarterback again, and having a city really buy-in to the type of person that he is. That’s everything you want to see from one of your players.”

Bucs OC Liam Coen: “Baker Mayfield’s The Modern-Day Brett Favre”

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

As evidenced by Baker Mayfield’s league-leading 16 interceptions, his high-end play comes with a balance. Liam Coen has learned to live with who Mayfield naturally is and has taken to harnessing the playstyle that makes him unlike any quarterback in the league.

While other signal-callers like to play it safe, Mayfield has become this generation’s Brett Favre.

“I mean, he’s the modern-day Brett Favre,” Coen said. “He’s accomplished that. As a coach, you have to lean into that and understand that’s who he is. That’s how he plays, and that gives us a really good chance to win most games. ‘Okay, how do you harness it? How do you try to get him to play the game at his highest level, the way he wants to play?’ Your truest self comes out on the field, and that’s what you want for these guys.

“Ultimately, ‘how do we protect ourselves from us sometimes?’ We as coaches have to look into that and for the most part, yeah, we’ve had some ups and downs with some of those things with the turnovers, but his production, the way he willed us [through] that game [against the Saints], rushing for 68 yards – none of those were really designed.”

When asked about it further on Thursday, Coen was happy to discuss how Mayfield displays a similar passion for the game as Favre once did and is a tough and fiery leader inside the huddle. After the Bucs’ 27-19 win over the Saints to clinch the NFC South, the quarterback slid right into the offensive line’s group picture, symbolizing how he plays like one of them on the gridiron.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and LT Tristan Wirfs – Photo by: USA Today

“There is so much of him you can see in the way that they play – their passion for the game, the way they get their teammates to compete at a high level with them,” Coen added. “That’s part of it. You have to lean into that, in a way, if you’re part of the process with him. Some of those things are going to go bad, some are going to be unbelievable.

“The throw that he makes to ‘J-Mac’ (Jalen McMillan) in the corner of the end zone off schedule on a play that they had to make in a critical moment…There’s not a ton of guys making that throw. The scrambling, gaining 68 yards rushing…He played his tail off for us. You have to lean into that because that’s really part of what makes him great – that attitude, that mentality, and a little bit of that gunslinger mentality.”

Heading into the playoffs, the Bucs are counting on Baker Mayfield to play at his best – even if that means taking risks like his idol Brett Favre once did. Mayfield has shown he counteracts that with more than enough big plays, and Tampa Bay will need plenty of them as they face rookie sensation Jayden Daniels and the Commanders on Sunday night.