If the Houston Texans want to avoid their second 0-2 start in the last three years, they’ll need to get a win this Monday night at the expense of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who enter the game with a 1-0 record after edging out the Atlanta Falcons last Sunday. Like Tampa Bay, Houston entered the year as a sizable favorite to reclaim its divisional crown.
However, unlike the Buccaneers, the Texans had big offensive questions to answer during the offseason. While Houston’s entire offensive ecosystem required a reset after the 2024 season, Tampa’s offense only needed to change because offensive coordinator Liam Coen was hired by the Jacksonville Jaguars to be their next head coach. Otherwise, you’d be hard-pressed to find any issues with a group led by one of the league’s best quarterbacks… Baker Mayfield.
At this point, if you’re under the illusion that Baker Mayfield isn’t somewhere in the range of one of the six or seven best quarterbacks in the NFL, you might as well be living in 2022. Since arriving in Tampa and earning the starting job ahead of the 2023 season, Mayfield is sixth in the NFL in passer rating, second in passing yards and first in passing touchdowns.
To make matters even worse for the Texans, head coach DeMeco Ryans believes Mayfield is at his absolute best right now, as Houston prepares to host Tampa Bay in the opening matchup on the league’s first Monday Night Football doubleheader.
The Bucs, the one thing I would say about the Bucs starting off watching the tape, Baker Mayfield is—he’s playing the best he’s played [in] his career,” Ryans said about Mayfield, per Keith Cummings of Sports Illustrated. “Todd [Bowles] has done a really nice job of working with Baker in the passing game. They were first in the league in passing last year, or they were top-5 in pretty much all the major offensive categories last year, and it shows.”
What also shows up is that the Bucs aren’t just a one-man show. In veteran wide receiver Mike Evans and rookie Emeka Egbuka, Tampa Bay possesses one of the top pass-catching one-two punches in the league. But DeMeco Ryans made it clear, Baker is the one who gets Tampa’s passing attack off the ground.
“They have weapons at receiver,” Ryans said. You know, Mike Evans has done it for a long time, continues to shine. The young kid, Egbuka, has done a really nice job making some explosive plays. He showed up big time for them in their game versus Atlanta. And Baker, he does a really nice job of just moving around and scrambling in the pocket, keeping plays alive. You see toughness. You see grittiness from Baker, which allows their passing game to thrive.”
Onus is on CJ Stroud, Nick Caley to Get Texans Passing Game Going
The ability of the Texans defense to keep Baker Mayfield in check on Monday night is even more important because of how ineffective Houston’s offense was in their opening week game against the Los Angeles Rams. The Texans offense finished with three 1st half field goals, two turnovers and only 265 total yards, and to make matters worse, CJ Stroud was under pressure all afternoon long after spending the entire 2024 season running for his life.
“We didn’t deserve to win that game because we didn’t do the right things,” Stroud said on Sunday, according to DJ Bien-Aime of ESPN.com. When you come out in the NFL lollygagging and going through the motions, that’ll kind of happen. We’ll be all right.”
DeMeco Ryans knows that even if things get sorted out between last Sunday and this Monday, the Bucs defense still presents a significant challenge for his group… specifically new offensive coordinator Nick Caley and the oft-critiqued offensive line that needed to be overhauled in the offseason.
“He’s [Todd Bowles] going to bring a lot of exotic pressures,” Ryans said. “There are going to be pressures from safeties, nickels, like, everybody is coming. They do a really good job of disguising it. So we just really have to do a great job as an offense when the picture changes. Like, how are we reacting and responding the proper way, communicating the proper way when the picture changes? That’ll be the challenge for us this week.”
One of the many challenges.
DeMeco Ryans Addresses Challenges of Facing Baker Mayfield, Buccaneers Offense