The 3-2 Tampa Bay Buccaneers have scored 30 or more points in three of their first five games, and quarterback Baker Mayfield is off to an impressive start with a 112.2 passer rating that ranks second in the NFL among qualifying passers. Mayfield has successfully worked all areas of the grass, both horizontally and vertically, and that includes the often difficult middle of the field.
According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Mayfield has a 68.8% completion rate on throws over the middle, with a passer rating of 102.7. He's thrown two touchdowns and no interceptions on those plays and has an excellent success rate (essentially, the percentage of plays that keeps an offense on-schedule) of 58.3%. Mayfield knows that sort of success will be tested on Sunday in the Superdome against a New Orleans Saints defense ranked eight in the league in scoring defense. Demario Davis, one of the league's best coverage linebackers, is in the middle of a defensive backbone that patrols that part of the field well.
"Obviously, Demario Davis [just] with the amount of experience he has, he is able to recognize things very quickly," said Mayfield. "He [is] obviously a very physical player when it comes to the run game and in play-action he adds on quickly to try and make you get the ball out. He might not exactly be blitzing on some of these plays, but he recognizes it and forces you to get the ball out. I think Pete Werner is a very, very good player, as well. Those two side by side are a very good linebacker duo. They kind of play off of each other. Pete has come a long way in the aspect of where he is at mentally in the game. You can tell he and Demario are very much on the same page and kind of interchangeable within the scheme that they have.
"That makes it really tough over the middle of the [field] when they're able to play the way they do. Then, obviously, [safety] Tyrann Mathieu has seen a lot of ball, as well – just pattern recognition and going from there. Then you've got Marshon Lattimore who is a physical guy, as well."
Perhaps even more notably, the Saints' defense has been extremely stingy in another key area of the field: the red zone. New Orleans has allowed only a 25% touchdown rate on red zone incursions, the lowest in the NFL.
"[It's] just an aggressive team," said Mayfield. "They have some of their key leaders that are always down there, aggressive and physical down there in tight spots. [They have] guys that understand concepts. They're able to react and close some of these windows with the pass game quickly, or just [be] physical up front, not really letting you get off the ball and establish that line of scrimmage. So, for us, it's really, really about the details when it comes down to the redzone offense. It's going to be a tough ballgame when it comes down to that area of the field, but we have to find a way to execute."
