Buccaneers
When appearing on Jason and Travis Kelce‘s New Heights podcast, Baker Mayfield said the Buccaneers have allowed him to be himself after previous teams told him to “tone it down.”
“This isn’t to shit on the other teams and franchises, but when you step in and your GM and your head coach say, ‘Hey, just be you,’ after I’ve been told at every stop and everywhere I go, ‘You need to tone it down a little bit, you need to be a franchise quarterback.’ It’s just not who I am,” Mayfield said. “I wear my emotions on my sleeves. I’m gonna talk shit, I’m going to do whatever, but when it’s time to turn the lights on and go do something I’m going to do it. So when I stepped into the building they all told me to just be myself.”
Buccaneers
Bucs LB Lavonte David has fallen in love with the grind, which keeps him engaged and hungry entering his 14th season.
“My favorite part about the grind is that third, fourth day of full-pad practices and everybody is tired, everybody’s beat up, everybody’s complaining and then to just come out like ‘No, F that, I want to be the one to bring everybody on.’ I want to see everybody pick themselves up, and I want to be the guy bringing everybody up when they are going through hard times in camp,” David said, via the team’s website. “I just feel like that’s a part of the grind people do not really pay attention to. I feel like if I am one of those guys who can pick everybody up when it’s tough and it’s hard, then everything is going to be easy after that.”
David said that returning to the Super Bowl is his main goal as he begins the final stages of his career.
“We just fell short, and definitely unfortunate, but probably one of the main reasons why I came back, and I know what we are capable of and I know what we can do,” he said. “We have the talent to do it, and we have the mindset to do it. So, we just got to put it all together and I always say, ‘Offense just do their thing, defense we just have to take care of it.’ We have just got to do a better job defensively, and I think we’ll get to the promised land if we do that. [Head] Coach [Todd Bowles] said in a team meeting yesterday, ‘We do not want to be a monster unless we want to be the elite.’ I feel like that’s a mindset we have to have. The past couple of seasons, always coming down to the wire to make the playoffs, and we do not want to be in that situation anymore. We have the team to dominate, and we want to have that mentality, and when you have that mentality, it can get us there. I feel like that’s what we had back in 2020, when everybody had confidence, everybody was playing a great brand of football. Also, obviously a big part of that is staying healthy too. If we stay healthy and we take care of what we need to take care of, I think we can get it done.”
Panthers
The Panthers signed WR Hunter Renfrow this offseason. When asked about the veteran receiver, QB Bryce Young said Renfrow is proving successful against both zone and man coverage.
“He has such a great feel for the game,” Young said, via PanthersWire. “Versus man, versus zone—he just has a great knack for getting open. He understands concepts. Understands defensive leverage. Does a really good job at the top of routes, creating separating, giving indicators. Really friendly and easy to throw to as a quarterback. So, super excited to build chemistry with him.”
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