![Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) looks on during a combined NFL football training camp session between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Jacksonville Jaguars Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024 at EverBank Stadium’s Miller Electric Center in Jacksonville, Fla. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]](https://statico.profootballnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/21151159/mike-mcdaniel-baker-mayfield-miami-dolphins-tampa-bay-buccaneers.jpg "'He Is a Galvanizer of Teammates' -- Baker Mayfield Has a Big Fan in Miami Dolphins' Mike McDaniel")
TAMPA — It’s fun to imagine an Earth 2 in which Mike McDaniel had a chance to draft and coach Baker Mayfield.
The San Francisco 49ers — for whom McDaniel served as an assistant before taking the Miami Dolphins‘ top job — weren’t in the QB market when Mayfield came out of Oklahoma in 2018. But even if they were, they had no shot to draft him anyway. Mayfield went first overall to the Browns that year.
Miami Dolphins’ Mike McDaniel Raves About Baker Mayfield
Things didn’t work out in Cleveland for Mayfield, but in retrospect, that seems like more of a Browns problem than a Baker problem.
The environment might be the most important determinant of success for quarterbacks, and the environment for the former Heisman Trophy winner has been far better in Tampa Bay than in Cleveland.
Mayfield threw for 4,000 yards and 28 touchdowns to make the Pro Bowl in his first season with the Buccaneers and is back for an encore.
And McDaniel — whose Dolphins team went up against Baker in practice Wednesday — is excited to see Mayfield’s next step.
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“I don’t think I crossed paths necessarily with him in the process, but I evaluated him thoroughly and was very, very impressed, specifically with the way that he was able to kind of create and define his own timing within his offense collegiately,” McDaniel said.
“You could tell that [he was a] competitor also [had] that football, I don’t know, rhythm to him. You know that translates to the National Football League, so I was high on him coming out.”
Added McDaniel:
“I think he’s had a cool story where the really good quarterbacks in this league, quarterbacks that have success, you have to be able to handle the highs and the lows. I think he’s experienced both and came out as a prime example of how to continue to progress your game. All the while, people are talking that they love you or hate you, whatever you deal with. You just keep working on your craft.
“I think he is a galvanizer of teammates. I think he brings people together. And there’s certainly a lot of energy when he makes a play from the whole team, so you can tell what he means to this team and why he’s having success.”