Should Bucs QB Baker Mayfield Have Made the Pro Bowl Over Goff, Daniels, Darnold?

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield was snubbed for the Pro Bowl Games' NFC roster. But did he really deserve to be a Pro Bowl Games starter over Jared Goff, Jayden Daniels and Sam Darnold?

Feb 4, 2024; Orlando, FL, USA; NFC quarterback Baker Mayfield (60 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers reacts against the AFC during the 2024 Pro Bowl at Camping World Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield was the 2024 Pro Bowl Games MVP last year. This year, he wasn't voted to the NFC's first team.

The 2025 Pro Bowl Games rosters were revealed ahead of the NFL's last week of the regular season, and the NFC has three quarterbacks starting — the Washington Commnaders' Jayden Daniels, the Minnesota Vikings' Sam Darnold and the Detroit Lions' Jared Goff. Mayfield is listed as an alternate — that's also how he got into the games last year, in fact — but he has been a better quarterback in 2024 than he was in 2023, and there's a decent debate that he should be one of the NFC's starters.

No Baker Mayfield…. https://t.co/EPvM42VMuL

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 2, 2025

Well, should he be? Let's look at the good stuff first.

The Argument For

Mayfield is top three in the NFL in passer rating (3rd), touchdown passes (T-2nd), passing yards (3rd) and completion percentage (2nd), all while being top 10 in the NFL in yards per attempt (7th), proving that he's pushing the ball down the field. Mayfield has 39 passing touchdowns this year, and just one more would make him the only Buccaneers quarterback aside from Tom Brady to throw for 40 or more touchdowns in a season for Tampa Bay. He has three rushing touchdowns, bringing his total to 42 — that's more than Goff, Darnold or Daniels' totals, and he's thrown for more touchdown passes than all three quarterbacks who did make the Pro Bowl. He also did that without Chris Godwin for most of the year and without Mike Evans for three games, which only furthers an impressive case.

The Argument Against

Mayfield has 15 interceptions this year — that's not only more than all three NFC starters, it's tied for the league's second-most picks with Geno Smith. That alone would not be enough of a disqualifier, but there is something to be said about the negative plays that Mayfield generates. He's fumbled a staggering 13 times this year, which is tied for the most in the NFL with now-benched Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins. He only lost two of those, which is good, but fumbles can lose yards and pin the team back even if you do recover it. These types of negative plays probably contribute to his poor QBR, per ESPN, which has him at 59.4 — the 16th-best in the NFL.

The Verdict

So, with all that, was Mayfield snubbed? There's a good argument for both sides, but we think he was.

The quarterback that he most likely could have made it over is Daniels. Mayfield has more total touchdowns (42 to 31), more total yards (4,589 to 4,394) and a better completion percentage as a passer (71.7% to 69.4%). Daniels will win significantly in the turnover department — he's thrown just nine picks to Mayfield's 15, and of his five fumbles this year, he hasn't lost any of them. He's played cleaner football, but Mayfield'd overall production is better enough to offset the balance, in our eyes.

Should the Buccaneers miss out on the playoffs or get eliminated from them, it's still likely that he'd make it as a first alternate. Goff, Daniels and Darnold have all clinched in the NFC, and with a flat 43% chance one of them goes to the Super Bowl, Mayfield is likely to participate in the games again in an effort to win his second-consecutive Pro Bowl Games MVP award.

He won't want to do that, though. He'll want to go to the Super Bowl, and to do that, his Buccaneers will have to defeat the New Orleans Saints on Sunday at 1 p.m. to win the NFC South and make the playoffs.

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