Mayfield ‘blocked’ Buccaneers coach’s number | Sports News

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield blocked offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard’s cellphone number during the bye week to get his thoughts away from soccer and recharge. Before the Bucs loved a week off from NFL soccer in Week 9, Mayfield and Co. put collectively a 6-2 run to prime the NFC South forward of the Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, and the New Orleans Saints.

Tampa Bay is in pole place to clinch an NFL playoff spot and now return to motion seeking to win a second consecutive sport after beating the Saints senselessly in Week 9 with a 23-3 victory. Mayfield and his Bucs teammates face a formidable opponent within the high-flying New England Patriots in Week 11, although.

One of Mayfield’s MVP rivals, Drake Maye,  is having a standout marketing campaign in New England in his sophomore 12 months. The Patriots seem to have lastly shaken off their post-Tom Brady hangover, topping the AFC East forward of the Buffalo Bills with a 7-2 report.

Maye has 2,285 passing yards for 17 touchdowns and simply 4 interceptions. The quarterback has additionally improved his dashing manufacturing, accumulating 270 yards on the ground and scoring two touchdowns.

Ahead of his conflict with Maye’s Patriots, Mayfield switched off totally during the Bucs’ bye week. Mayfield went M.I.A. to the purpose the place he needed to block Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Grizzard’s cellphone number.

“Didn’t talk to him during the bye, blocked his phone number, didn’t want to hear anything from him,” Mayfield stated with a smirk. “He’s handled it well.

“You discuss guys dropping like flies, and simply good play callers at all times stated alter to what they’ve on the sphere. They call it to their participant strengths and Josh achieved a actually good job of that and adjusted and proceed to do this as we go alongside the season.”

Mayfield has been battling with a knee issue in recent weeks, but the Bucs have not indicated that it will affect his participation in this week’s clash. The quarterback says he has been able to negate throwing issues as a result of his knock by adjusting his arm angle.

Mayfield says ‘no excuses’

“I imply, it is not likely an excuse,” Mayfield said. “You simply gotta get used to it, determine it out, and go from there.

“Yeah, some throws, if it didn’t have my feet perfect, they weren’t gonna be accurate, and normally I can make up for it with how I change my arm angle and stuff like that, but yeah, so some of it was different. But you just gotta live and learn.”

“The guys have shown that it’s a resilient group and that they’re able to handle whatever we throw at them and whatever we have installed,” Mayfield added on the group’s mentality. “So yeah, just gotta keep going. At this point, it’s real football starts, and we have obviously a really, really good opponent coming in here.”