NFC Notes: Baker Mayfield, Bryce Young, Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers

Buccaneers

Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield said he chose to come to Tampa Bay to have the opportunity to play within himself instead of trying to fit into an offense that goes against who he is as a player.

“It’s exactly how it is,” Mayfield said, via SI’s Albert Breer. “It’s a big reason why I chose to come to Tampa [Bay]. They told me to be the best version of myself. That’s football—having fun playing football. A couple other stops, they tried to morph me into someone I’m not, got a little too involved instead of letting me be a great leader. This place has empowered me to be the best version of myself. You see it on tape. It pops out at you. People notice it.”

Mayfield added that he also chose the Bucs due to the fact that they had a championship-caliber roster and desired to be able to play in meaningful games late in the season.

“That’s the reason I signed here in the first place, to make a run, and just enjoy the process with them,” he said. “I came here to play meaningful football in December. We’re fighting uphill battles with the record that we have, but still being able to come in here as a team and finding a way to win in a hostile environment was big-time. It’s just the mentality of not taking no for an answer, and when it comes down to it, in these important games in December, everybody’s got to be really, really focused.”

Mayfield added that his time in Carolina was a learning experience and he used the opportunity he had in Los Angeles to showcase potential suitors that he can still be a starting-caliber quarterback.

“I’m a firm believer of everything happens for a reason,” Mayfield explained. “I think God had a plan for me. To think of everything that was going on, was I having fun? Absolutely not. But that’s what made me take a step back and say, There’s a meaning in this mess right now. There’s purpose in the pain, so let’s figure it out. When I got to Carolina, just trying to be the best teammate I could be. It didn’t work out. When I got to LA, it was like, Alright, I have five games to ball out, have fun and a little bit of a reset, then go into free agency with an open and fresh mind. It all happened for a reason, and it got me here to this point. It helps to get to learn from different people and different philosophies. Having to adjust on the fly, learn guys, how they’re doing routes, having to adjust, just being able to be an excellent communicator in different atmospheres, different places on pretty much a fast track, it makes you grow up.”

Falcons

• Falcons HC Arthur Smith said the team was still attempting to decide who would be the starting quarterback going forward and that no decision would be final. On Tuesday morning, the team announced it would bench QB Desmond Ridder and once again install QB Taylor Heinicke as the starter. (Tori McElhaney)

Panthers

Panthers rookie QB Bryce Young basked in the opportunity to lead his team to a game-winning drive over the rival Falcons on Sunday.

“Where else would you rather be?” Young said, via Panthers Wire. “Opportunity to go down and win the game. For me, there’s no other group I’d rather do it with. We all have faith in each other. We all believe in each other. It was just a great opportunity.”

“Really, we’re just all happy. There’s a lot of joy for sure,” Young said, via PFT. “It really comes from us wanting to see each other succeed. We want to see each other win. We put the work in. We trust in each other, and we haven’t been able to see a lot of those results this year, but it’s always great when you get to see that and it actually gets to come to fruition on Sunday. Again, right now it’s still fresh. Still enjoying it, but there’s still a lot of stuff we want to get better at and want to improve on. So, feels great. We’ll move on and file it away and take the good and the bad from it.”

Young appears to have a good attitude in a lost season and said the team will continue to take it one game at a time.

“It’s something for us to build off of,” Young said. “Again, it hasn’t gone the best before this, but we need a win every week. There’s no week that we need one more than the other. And throughout all this, we never lose faith. Never lose confidence. Never lose trust in each other. There’s no loss of fight. They’re hard to come by, and they mean a lot. We’ve got to enjoy it and then file it away and take what we can from it and improve.”