Baker Mayfield sees Lions game as measuring stick for Buccaneers

The Buccaneers got the 2024 season off to an impressive start by routing the Commanders in Week One, but they’re going to take a step up in competition this week.

A trip to Detroit looms for the defending NFC South champions and that means they’ll get plenty of reminders that their playoff run ended at the hands of the Lions at Ford Field in January. The Lions also beat the Bucs in the regular season and they came into this season as one of the favorites to win the conference, so it’s no surprise that quarterback Baker Mayfield sees this game as a chance for the Bucs to see how they measure up this year.

“Yeah, this is definitely one of those,” Mayfield said, via the team’s website. “I mean, every week you have to bring your best stuff. At this level, if you don’t show up you can get beat any given week. This is one of those – on the road with a team who was in the NFC Championship, where we aspire to be, so it’s one of those – you said it, measuring sticks to great competition [and] see how our guys handle it early on. You know, it’s a long season but we can learn a lot from this one.”

Given last season’s results, a win this Sunday would mean more to perceptions of the Bucs than it would to the view of the Lions. In the big picture, though, both teams are going to have a lot of work to do regardless of this weekend’s results.