Meanwhile, Buffalo's defense has taken a significant step backward since losing Tre'Davious White and then Matt Milano and DaQuan Jones. He has a tiny 3.8% sack rate, and checks in 13th among 32 qualified passers in EPA/dropback, per TruMedia. Mayfield has completed 65.2% of his passes at an average of 6.7 yards per attempt, with eight touchdowns against four interceptions.
So it's been more of a minor drop-off.Īt least part of that is due to Mayfield's surprisingly effective play, no small part of which can be credited to an offensive line that has largely kept him clean in the pocket. They were 15th, 25th, 18th, and 22nd, respectively, last year. They check in 23rd in yards per game, 27th in points per game, 24th in FTN's DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average), and 22nd in TruMedia's version of EPA/play.
Expected to take a nosedive on offense after swapping out Tom Brady for Baker Mayfield, the Bucs have instead been just a run-of-the-mill below-average offense so far this season.
