Getty Cody Mauch (left) and Baker Mayfield of the Buccaneers
It was in the seventh grade that the legend of Cody Mauch began. That was when he was had his two front teeth knocked out playing in a middle school basketball game. He could have been fitted for replacements but … nah. He went with it, and has not had front teeth since. His introduction to the NFL, after he was the second-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has been similarly tough. Learning to run-block and protect Baker Mayfield, Mauch again had his teeth knocked out early in the season. Figuratively.
But it has gotten better. In recent weeks, even as the Buccaneers have struggled to finish games. Mayfield says he has seen it, and wants to make sure that Mauch continues his upward swing.
“You really saw him improve in that (49ers) game against, obviously, a great challenge,” Mayfield said on Wednesday. “He has continually (taken) that step. That’s something you look for. As a rookie, you’re finding your way and then sometimes the light will turn on and you can just build on that. He has improved consistently. We ask a lot of those guys up front, but Cody is continually improving and we’re really happy about that.”
Buccaneers O-Line Has Protected Baker Mayfield
There are five players on an offensive line, and all five are accountable for both the good and the bad that happens within the unit. The Buccaneers have done well protecting Baker Mayfield–they rank 10th with 2.3 sacks allowed–but the run game has been problematic.
There is no doubt that a lot of what went wrong with the Buccaneers O-line early in the year—especially when blocking for the run—started with Cody Mauch. According to Pro Football Focus’s grading system, Mauch failed to crack a run-blocking grade of 50.0 in seven of the team’s first eight games.
Since then, he has been over 50.0 in three of five weeks, and had one week at 49.8. That’s not great, but it shows improvement. He has had run-blocking grades of 64.9 and, against the 49ers, one of 72.5. He even drew a punch from Panthers star Brian Burns last week, and shrugged it off.
Mauch has had to continually improve throughout his football journey. He was a walk-on tight end who had played 9-on-9 football in high school when he went to North Dakota State, but bulked up and became a left tackle. Now he is learning the right guard position in the NFL.
He said he has gotten more comfortable with the spot. But it was not easy and, as a guy who grew up on a North Dakota farm, he describes the process with some colorful language.
“I would say [my] head is not as much like a chicken with its head cut off,” Mauch said after practice this week. “Those first couple games, everything is so fast, it’s like, ‘What do I do? Where do I go?’ I think it’s just really [that] I’ve calmed down a lot in there. That’s really helped me play a lot faster.
Cody Mauch Must Continue Improvement
The rest of this season will be huge in determining the Buccaneers’ NFL future. Coach Todd Bowles could be on the firing line. We don’t know whether Baker Mayfield, who is a free agent after the year, will return.
Cody Mauch is likely to be around a while, but he will be under the microscope from here. That’s particularly true in Week 14 as the Buccaneers play a make-or-break game against the Falcons. They’re 5-7, a game behind Atlanta (6-6).
The Bucs lost to the Falcons in Week 7, and Mauch struggled. There is some frustration going back to look at that game tape.
“You’re a little frustrated at times watching the last game, because you’re like, ‘Why did I do that? What am I doing?’” he said. “But we’ve all grown a lot since that game, as players. It’s good to go back and see, because you’re still the same player. You’ve made some improvements, but you can kind of see what I did last time and how you can improve that.”
He’s hoping that, this time around, Mauch won’t be the headless chicken he was in the early part of the year.