The Panthers released Baker Mayfield 4 years ago. He continues to haunt them
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It was December 2022, and the Carolina Panthers’ front office faced a tough decision. The prior summer, they had spent $5 million acquiring a quarterback who had played just seven games for Carolina — and lost all but one. In the end, they decided the investment was not worth it, and they released him.
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Now, four years later, that same decision has come back to haunt Carolina.
Since Baker Mayfield signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2023, the Panthers have defeated their division rivals just once in the past seven meetings, including Carolina’s 43-13 blowout loss at home Sunday.
Mayfield also beat the Panthers as a Cleveland Brown in 2018.
But the Bucs’ current quarterback, who was repeatedly booed when he was Carolina’s several seasons ago, said his success against the Panthers has nothing to do with his past employer.
“It’s more so about the Bucs,” Mayfield said. “I’ve found a great home. People that believe in me. People that I want to work extremely hard for.”
Mayfield did not have to work all that hard Sunday, when his Bucs rushed for 258 of the team’s 322 total yards. Mayfield completed seven of 11 pass attempts for just 64 yards, including a 14-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Tez Johnson late in the first half.
It was the second-fewest passing yards Mayfield has had in an NFL game, behind the 41 he notched in a 34-7 loss to the Rams in 2025.
Mayfield was returning after missing three games with a dislocated right thumb on his throwing hand. Bucs head coach Todd Bowles said the plan was not to run the ball as much as they did.
But it worked — so they went with it, providing the Bucs with only their second win of the season.
“You get 49 runs in, and you can run the ball like that, especially with a quarterback coming back off injury — you made the day easy for him,” Bowles said. “When you can get a win like that without throwing the ball that much, you’ll take that all day long.”
The last time Tampa Bay beat Carolina by this much, Mayfield had a field day. In the Bucs’ 48-14 beatdown over Carolina in week 17 of the 2024 season, he threw for 259 yards and five touchdowns.
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But Mayfield will take a win however it comes.
“We put the work in week in, week out,” Mayfield said. “And so when it comes to division games, we gotta take care of them.”
Mayfield’s day was not without impressive plays. On his lone touchdown pass, Mayfield escaped Carolina pressure, evaded to the right, and threw it on the run, off his back foot, all while leaning back.
Johnson, who caught that pass wide open in the end zone, has played two seasons with Mayfield. And while Mayfield downplayed the added motivation of playing against his old team, Johnson certainly thinks his teammate dislikes the Panthers.
Even with the loss, Carolina still sits atop the NFC South, with a 3-3 record, followed by Atlanta (3-4), Tampa Bay (2-5) and New Orleans (2-5).
“They’re a division team that we play every year,” Johnson said. “I know that he don’t like the Panthers. We don’t like the Panthers either. That’s kind of how we just took it today. Nobody likes the Panthers. Like, I hate them.”
But that is, after all, coming from a guy who never has been a Panther. Carolina tight end Tommy Tremble, one of the few Panthers who played with Mayfield while he was in Carolina, harbors no hate for Tampa Bay’s quarterback.
So after the game, as former colleagues often do, Tremble found his ex-coworker and chatted with him.
“At the end of the day, he’s still a good dude,” Tremble said. “And I still wish him the best the rest of the season.”
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This story was originally published October 25, 2026 at 7:20 PM.
