The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made their faith in Baker Mayfield crystal clear just five days before the regular-season kickoff, handing their franchise quarterback a three-year, $165 million extension. But after Mayfield and Co. fell 33-27 to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1, questions quickly followed about his performance. Mayfield, however, pointed to a different problem: one inside his helmet.
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In the postgame presser, the quarterback was asked why the Bucs were breaking the huddle late and whether it impacted their protections. It was then that the 31-year-old QB pinned the blame on his headset.
“We had some headset issues for quite a while, in and out,” Mayfield said. “Which, it’s not an excuse, but when they’re testing them on the sidelines and they work perfectly fine, then you get out in between the hashes and it’s not working, it’s unfortunate.
“But it wasn’t the whole time, just kind of first drive for sure, and then sporadically throughout the rest of the game. But yeah, we need to get in and out of the huddle quicker.”
Now, after this revelation, the league may have to look into the equipment the Bucs had for their season opener. But a technical issue might not be enough to explain the disaster that was Mayfield’s 2026 NFL start.
Against a Cincinnati defense firing on all cylinders, Mayfield went 23-of-28 for 216 yards but threw no passing touchdowns. On five carries for 30 yards, Mayfield did get a rushing touchdown, while running back Bucky Irving brought in the other one, but the aerial attack Mayfield showcased last season was nowhere to be seen in Cincinnati. And the biggest drawback was, without a doubt, the four fumbles.
Mayfield lost his first fumble right in his second possession, giving the Bengals an early 7-3 lead.
On the very next possession, Irving lost a fumble, setting Bengals’ QB Joe Burrow up to log his only passing touchdown of the game. Mayfield’s second fumble was even stranger. On a 1st & 5 at Cincy’s 12-yard line, Mayfield scrambled up the field for 8 yards before linebacker Barrett Carter came up from behind him, making him lose the ball, which was recovered by Cincy at their own end zone.
For a while, it looked like the Bucs would be able to close the lead. They were 20-27 at the start of the fourth quarter. But one more fumble with 10:41 left in the fourth quarter killed any momentum the Bucs had gained.
Even a late-game 9-yard scramble for a touchdown couldn’t close the game. After this disaster, Mayfield may be blaming the headsets, but head coach Todd Bowles placed the blame squarely on the turnovers.
“Obviously, you can’t turn the ball over. One was a six when they ran up, the other one’s across midfield. We had four turnovers, we lose by one touchdown, but it wasn’t just that,” Bowles said. “We had some penalties and some false starts there. Defensively, I’d be interested to know how many tackles we missed. We missed some chip-shot tackles to get the ball back at the end, give our offense a chance.
“The sad part is we didn’t punt. It was either a turnover or points, and we can’t turn it over. So, against a team like that, they got very good players, and they closed very well. We didn’t help ourselves.”
Tampa Bay’s winning streak comes to an end…
Tampa Bay had made winning its season opener a habit, entering Sunday with five straight Week 1 victories dating back to 2021. The loss against the Bengals finally snapped that run, though the Bucs know an opening-week defeat doesn’t always spell disaster.
Their last Week 1 loss came in 2020, a season that ended with Tampa Bay lifting the Super Bowl LV trophy.
So, the box score tells the story of how Tampa Bay let a winnable game slip away. In a loss decided by just a couple of points, the Buccaneers had four fumbles, were flagged eight times for 39 yards, and converted only two of their four trips to the red zone.
They can now only hope not to make these same mistakes moving ahead.
Looking forward, when they host the Cleveland Browns next week, Baker Mayfield will have to prove that this turnover disaster was a one-off. If he can’t, the Bucs won’t take long to regret their $165 million investment.