John Romano: Here's the film Baker Mayfield needs on his way to the MVP award

TAMPA, Fla. — Get me Hollywood!

Get me a hotshot director, get me Morgan Freeman to narrate and get me a PR company with the emails of every MVP voter in the land.

Friends, we are making a movie. Well, more like a short film. A campaign video, if you will.

There’s hardly anything left to shoot, it’s already there in black-and-white. Also, pewter and creamsicle.

This is the two-minute video that will persuade football-watching Americans what they already know in their hearts:

That Baker Mayfield is the NFL’s Most Valuable Player in 2025.

Scene one: A ball soars through the air with a perfect blue Tampa Bay sky as the backdrop. Tez Johnson goes up, pulls it down with two hands and falls into the end zone for a touchdown. Johnson jumps up and, with the Raymond James Stadium crowd chanting “MVP! MVP!” does a handspring into a front flip and then follows with a back flip.

Cut to a scene on the bench where Johnson is perplexed about why fans would be chanting MVP for a receiver who just caught his first NFL touchdown. “Yeah,” veteran receiver Sterling Shepard explains. “Baker Mayfield threw you the ball.”

Cue Morgan Freeman in his calm, iconic voice telling the tale of Mayfield through a series of snapshots. Led Lake Travis High in Austin, Texas, to a state championship. Walked on at Texas Tech, won the starting job as a true freshman and threw for 413 yards in his college debut against SMU. Transferred to Oklahoma, where he won the Heisman Trophy in 2017. He is the first former walk-on to ever win the award.

Scene two: A montage of Buccaneers comebacks. Mayfield hitting Emeka Egbuka with a 25-yard laser pass with 59 seconds remaining to beat the Falcons. Mayfield scrambling for 15 yards on fourth and 10 with 1:24 remaining against the Texans. Mayfield hitting Shepard for 20 yards to set up a Chase McLaughlin field goal as time expires against the Jets. Mayfield hitting Shepard on an 11-yard touchdown with 1:08 left against the Seahawks.

Cut to a scene of former NFL quarterback Chris Simms in an NBC studio following Tampa Bay’s Week 6 win against San Francisco.

“He’s amazing,” Simms says. “He embodies the word ‘MVP’ right now. I don’t think it’s really close.

“The Buccaneers could be 1-5 if they didn’t have Baker Mayfield.”

Cue the sound of Freeman chuckling. He’s talking about Mayfield planting an Oklahoma flag at midfield in Ohio Stadium after the Sooners beat the Buckeyes in early 2017. This segues into a monologue about Mayfield’s heart. His courage. His pride. His rambunctiousness.

Scene three: In the tunnel at Lumen Field moments before the opening kickoff against the Seahawks, Mayfield eviscerates a Seattle fan who is heckling Bucs players. (Director’s prerogative on how many bleeps will be necessary in this sequence.)

Cue Freeman as he talks about how Mayfield’s cocksure disposition has endeared him to an offensive huddle, a locker room, an entire community. Some quarterbacks, he explains, wear their confidence stoically with a quiet determination that inspires others to stay on task. Mayfield — and at this point, Freeman pauses for effect — brings fire instead.

Scene four: Two 49ers defensive linemen have Mayfield trapped in the pocket on third-and-long. He wriggles out of their grasp and begins racing up the field. Slow down the tape to show the lack of grace in Mayfield’s running style as he jukes past another defender. Speed it back up as he gets hit several yards away from the chains but continues plowing forward until he falls for a first down.

Cut to Bucs head coach Todd Bowles in a postgame news conference

“I mean, I was in disbelief just like everybody else,” Bowles said. “It happens every other week or so. He makes those type of plays, and you pray he does not get hurt or anything happens to him. He has a knack that you can’t teach or coach. It was an unbelievable play.”

Cue Freeman for the finale. He mentions Josh Allen. He mentions Patrick Mahomes and Matthew Stafford. Great quarterbacks, great leaders, he says. All deserving to be in the conversation of league MVP.

But there is only one player with four fourth-quarter comebacks by mid-October. One player who has ignited a franchise and fan base that was in salary-cap hell before he got here. One player with a backstory of heartbreak and triumph that tops all the others.

Scene five: Pregame at Raymond James Stadium, Mayfield kneels down on the sideline and pulls off his helmet so his daughter, Kova, can see him. The 18-month-old wearing a white bow on her head toddles over to him, and he picks her up in his arms.

The camera fades, and all that remains is the sound of the crowd later that afternoon:

“MVP! MVP! MVP!”

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