January 12, 2025
Mayfield completed 15 of 18 passes for 185 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions and rushed seven times for 23 yards in the Buccaneers' 23-20 wild-card loss to the Commanders on Sunday night. He also lost a fumble.
ANALYSISMayfield was nearly perfect in every sense, even finishing the game with a 146.5 quarterback rating. However, his one error was critical, as his early fourth-quarter fumble on an attempted handoff was recovered by the Commanders'
Bobby Wagner at the Buccaneers' 13-yard line and was followed by a go-ahead touchdown pass from
Jayden Daniels to
Terry McLaurin four plays later. While Mayfield drove Tampa Bay 61 yards over eight plays to a field goal that knotted the game up at 20-20, the veteran signal-caller never got another opportunity with the ball. The disappointing finish to the season aside, Mayfield counts the 2024 campaign as his best yet as a pro, as he finished with career highs in completions (407), pass attempts (570), completion percentage (71.4), passing yards (4,500), touchdown passes (41) and rushing yards (378) across 17 regular-season games. Mayfield also tied a career high with three rushing scores, and about the only blemish on his season stat line was the second-highest interception tally of his career (16). Mayfield remains under contract with the Buccaneers through the 2026 season.