Baker Mayfield says Tom Brady 'stressed out' the Buccaneers: 'High-strung environment'
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield has the team playing well for the second straight season, almost as well as it did under Tom Brady. Mayfield claims to bring a drastically different vibe to the team than the one Brady brought from 2020-22.
During an interview on the "Casa De Klub podcast this week, Mayfield revealed what he heard about the vibe and locker room culture when Brady was there.
"The building was a little bit different with Tom in there," Mayfield said. "Obviously, playing-wise, Tom is different. He had everybody dialed in, high-strung environment. So, I think everybody was pretty stressed out.
"So, for me, and everybody was expecting the Bucs to not be good last year, they wanted me to come in, be myself, bring the joy back to football a little bit for guys that weren’t having as much fun and just continue to raise the competition level. They just asked me to be myself. As a player, you really can’t ask for much more than that."
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Brady was notorious for being a perfectionist throughout his career, a habit he picked up during his tenure with the New England Patriots and strict head coach Bill Belichick. Later in his career, Brady even reportedly had a hard time sleeping when he made a mistake in a game, even if it was in a game his team won, according to ESPN.
However, some of Brady's teammates have had different takes about Brady's presence.
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Former Buccaneers tight end Kyle Rudolph, who played with Brady in his final season in 2022, said during an interview with NBC Sports in September 2023 that Brady always kept a positive attitude.
"If anyone had the right to sometimes be an a--hole, it was Tom. He never was. Think of how tough a year it was for him off the field. The most amazing thing to me was, with all the negativity swirling around his life outside of football, he never carried it into the building. Always positive.
"My experience with Tom was incredible. First, the way he treated people. The way he treated the Glazer family [Bucs owners] is exactly the way he treated the janitor at 6:30 at night when he and maybe one or two other guys were the last players in the building."
Mayfield, now in his second season as Tampa Bay's starter, has led the team to a 2-0 start after a playoff victory last year. The Buccaneers have played so well lately they landed in the top five in Fox News Digital's latest NFL power rankings.
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