Baker Mayfield: Kyle Trask made locker room dynamics ‘awkward’ – JoeBucsFan.com

“Stay in your lane, Kyle.”

Baker Mayfield said this week that he’s working on setting the tone for the entire team from last season.

Todd Bowles didn’t give him the starting job, and that meant coaching the way Mayfield wanted couldn’t happen right away.

“It’s tricky because all offseason and most of camp, I was always battling with Kyle Trask for the starting job,” Mayfield told the Forgive my opinion podcast. “And I think a lot of guys knew what I was capable of, but they also didn’t know what version of me they were going to get. And the version they got was the one that really didn’t give a fuck.”

“I had nothing to lose at that point. I’m either going to be a backup for the rest of my career or I’m going to get this thing going again. So I thought, ‘This is the spark I needed. The first game, when I’m starting. Let’s set the tone, a third-down run or something we needed down the stretch, let’s set the tone for the rest of the season, like what kind of locker room we’re going to have.’”

Mayfield now has a big contract, a guaranteed starting job and a year under his belt leading most of the same men.

As Mayfield said The Mike Calta Show Earlier this week, he’s looking forward to building better chemistry with receivers and teammates this season. Last year, the Bucs short-circuited that start to the season by not giving Mayfield a job he was going to win anyway.

That’s not to say the Bucs would have been better if Mayfield had been named “the guy” from day one, but it’s possible it could have led to another regular-season victory.