Baker Mayfield in a Great Spot to Have a Geno Smith-like Bounce-Back Season in 2023

Baker Mayfield will have a chance to follow in Geno Smith's footsteps—a starter turned journeyman who finds his way as the replacement for a star quarterback.

After stints with three teams and two years in a backup role behind nine-time Pro Bowler Russell Wilson, Smith recorded career highs in multiple passing categories, throwing for 4,282 yards, 30 touchdowns and 11 interceptions to win 2022 Comeback Player of the Year.

Mayfield will compete with third-year signal-caller Kyle Trask for the opportunity to lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the post-Tom Brady era. If Mayfield wins the training camp battle, he could see a dramatic career turnaround similar to Smith.

Ironically, the Buccaneers hired Dave Canales, who served as Smith's quarterbacks coach last year.

With Canales as the Seahawks' passing game coordinator, Wilson logged career bests in touchdown passes (40) and completion rate (68.8) in 2020 and then followed that year with an efficient performance through 2021, throwing for 25 touchdowns and just six interceptions.

Canales had a front-row seat to Smith's transformation from a high-profile backup to a resurgent starter. Though he won't bring wideouts DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett with him to Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers have a set of Pro Bowl receivers who will make life easier for their new offensive coordinator and quarterback.

Because of Canales' extensive experience in coaching wide receivers (2010-17), he's equipped with the know-how to get the most out of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.

Before Brady, Evans caught passes from Josh McCown, Mike Glennon, turnover-prone Jameis Winston and a highly inconsistent journeyman in Ryan Fitzpatrick. Yet, he's recorded 1,001-plus receiving yards in all nine of his pro seasons. Oddly enough, Evans may be the league's most underrated top-tier wide receiver.

According to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, the Buccaneers have started negotiations with Evans on a new deal. The four-time Pro Bowler can elevate Mayfield as he's done with other low-end starting quarterbacks in the recent past.

Opposite Evans, Godwin has racked up at least 1,023 receiving yards in three of the previous four seasons and earned a Pro Bowl nod in 2019. In March of 2022, Tampa Bay signed him to a three-year, $60 million extension.

Mayfield will play with one of the NFL's top wide receiver tandems and some role players who can fill in gaps for Evans, who's going into his age-30 term, and Godwin, who's missed at least two games in each of the last four seasons.

Last year, wideout Russell Gage answered Brady's call to sign with the Buccaneers, and he hauled in 51 passes for 426 yards and a career-high five touchdowns. The 27-year-old racked up 770-plus receiving yards in back-to-back campaigns with the Atlanta Falcons between 2020 and 2021.

Second-year tight end Cade Otton had a solid rookie campaign with 42 receptions for 391 yards and two touchdowns. He aspires to develop into a complete tight end, providing Mayfield with another reliable target downfield and stronger protection around the pocket while opening up more lanes for the ground attack.

Otton told reporters what he envisions for himself in the upcoming campaign:

"I ultimately want to be an every-down tight end, just never come off the field and be a big contributor in the run game and the pass game. [I want to] have the coaches be able to trust me on the front-side run plays to take care of defensive ends, and also to win one-on-one versus safeties. You've seen some of the greats do that, like Gronk and Travis [Kelce] and George [Kittle]. I just want to look at the greats in the game and emulate after them."

When you compare the Buccaneers' stable of playmakers to the lineups Mayfield had at his previous stops in Cleveland, Carolina and Los Angeles (without Cooper Kupp because of injury), he has a more talent-rich unit in Tampa Bay.

In order to deliver timely passes to a plethora of pass-catchers, Mayfield needs a cohesive offensive line, which is something Brady didn't have last year because left guard Ali Marpet retired and center Ryan Jensen suffered a knee injury that sidelined him for the regular season.

This year, the Buccaneers will continue to shuffle their offensive line as they plan to move right tackle Tristan Wirfs to the left side following Donovan Smith's release and shift second-year offensive lineman Luke Goedeke from left guard to right tackle full-time, per Stroud. Also worthy of note, Tampa Bay signed Matt Feiler, who has significant playing experience at left guard and right tackle.

The Buccaneers' offensive-line group has to work on its chemistry, though a healthy Jensen and the addition of Feiler may be enough for the team to field a solid unit.

Tampa Bay's rushing attack can only improve after finishing the 2022 campaign with the fewest yards. Assuming the Buccaneers' front line stays relatively healthy, running backs Rachaad White and Chase Edmonds can be a productive ball-carrying tandem, which bodes well for Mayfield, who led the Browns to the 2020 playoffs with the help of the league's third-ranked rushing offense that year.

While Smith had a standout 2022 campaign, the Seahawks' ground attack ranked seventh in yards per carry (4.8) and registered 133-plus yards in each of the last three regular-season games (2-1 in that stretch).

With Canales coming from Seattle to Tampa Bay, he could carry over some of the Seahawks' principles in the ground game to elevate the Buccaneers' rushing attack.

Between the play-caller and the plethora of targets in the passing game, Mayfield is set up for success in Tampa Bay. If the offensive line holds up, he can pick and choose his spots to attack defenses downfield.

Even though Mayfield isn't known to have a strong arm, he flashed decent accuracy at the tail-end of the previous campaign with the Rams' makeshift receiving corps, completing 63.6 percent of his passes in five games.

At 6'5", 231 pounds, Evans is a big target, and Godwin catches like a Venus flytrap on the boundary with a 71.5 percent catch rate. With those two wideouts on the perimeter, Mayfield could see a bump in his completion rate.

As Mayfield said in a press conference after signing a one-year, $4 million deal with the Buccaneers, he'll never be Brady. That obvious self-observation aside, Mayfield, who went No. 1 overall in the 2018 draft, may finally play up to his full potential with a couple of star receivers and a strong supporting cast.

Maurice Moton covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @MoeMoton.