Will Baker Mayfield Settle His Differences With Kevin Stefanski Ahead Of NFC South Clash?

Baker Mayfield will meet Kevin Stefanski on Sunday as NFC South rivals© Image via: X/@Buccaneers

Five years is a long time to go without a phone call, and Baker Mayfield knows it. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback will line up Sunday across from Kevin Stefanski, the man who coached him in Cleveland and later let the Browns move on without him, this time as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Both teams stumbled out of the gate, yet the NFC South remains wide open. Raymond James Stadium hosts the 1 p.m. ET kickoff on November 1, and a quiet feud that never really went away gets its first real stage.

Baker Mayfield And The Cleveland Browns Years That Still Linger

Cleveland made Mayfield the first overall pick in 2018, but his partnership with Stefanski only began in 2020. That season the Browns went 11-5 and won a playoff game for the first time since 1994, ending a drought that had shaped the franchise for a generation. A slide to 8-9 followed in 2021. With Deshaun Watson on the horizon, Cleveland sent Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers that July. A stop with the Los Angeles Rams came next, then a happier landing in Tampa, where a Pro Bowl nod and NFC South titles in 2023 and 2024 rewrote his story.

Asked this week whether he had spoken with his old coach, Mayfield skipped the polish. "No, I haven't spoken to him since 2021," he told reporters. Does it still sting? "No, I'm doing alright. Alright." That repeated word says plenty.

#Bucs QB Baker Mayfield answers if he's talked to #Falcons HC Kevin Stefanski yet since the comments he made about him and if it still eats at him a little bit. “Nah, I'm good.” https://t.co/RRyyfdT6AL

— PewterReport (@PewterReport) October 28, 2026

The hurt showed more plainly in January, after an Atlanta reporter called Mayfield and Watson failures. Mayfield answered online with "Failed is quite the reach pal. Still waiting on a text/call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage. Can't wait to see you twice a year, Coach."

Kevin Stefanski, the Atlanta Falcons and a division race to settle

Stefanski has refused to feed the fire. After the post spread, he said, "Baker is someone I have a lot of respect for as a player and as a person." On Wednesday he stuck to football. "He's still a playmaker," Stefanski said. "No play is ever over. He's just going to constantly make plays down the field. He can run. He's extremely talented."

Mayfield has eased off since January, too. Speaking with Sports Illustrated during Super Bowl LX week, he said, "There's stuff there, but it's not like it's beef." Knowing someone well, he explained, makes beating them feel more personal. Revenge is not his motive, he insists. Tampa Bay simply wants its division back.

The standings raise the stakes. A win lifts Atlanta to .500, and if Carolina loses, the Falcons climb into first place. Stefanski will spend the week plotting how to contain a quarterback who is most dangerous once a play falls apart. Whatever the score says, the postgame handshake may draw nearly as many eyes as the final drive.