Baker Mayfield jabs Houston Astros while discussing Vikings' hand signals

Yes, Baker Mayfield did figure out the Vikings defensive signals in Sunday’s Bucs win. But rather than reveal how he did so, this native Texan gigged the World Series champions Houston Astros.

We’ll explain. It seems Mayfield, the new Bucs quarterback, is a big fan of the Rangers, a team that plays its games a three-plus hour drive from Mayfield’s family home outside Austin. And it truly is an either/or between the Rangers of Astros when you’re from the Lone State State. The Astros got busted for sign-stealing incidents back in 2017 when they won their first World Series title.

So how’d you figure out the Vikings signs, Baker Mayfield? Well, it wasn’t theft.

“Listen, I know I’m in Tampa, but I’m a Texas Rangers fan, not a Houston Astros fan,” Mayfield told reporters. “So we’re not going to condone that.”

The Bucs beat the Vikings, 20-17. It was one of the big upsets in the NFL’s first week of play. Baker Mayfield, who won the starting job in training camp, started the game slowly. He completed only three of his first 11 pass attempts. And those three passes generated an anemic 12 yards. Then something flipped in Mayfield’s game. From that point, he finished the game by completing 18 of his 23 passes for 161 yards and two touchdowns.

Mayfield’s stats definitely weren’t gaudy. But they proved to be winning numbers. He led Tampa Bay on a 10-play drive to set up the winning 57-yard field goal with five minutes to play.

Baker Mayfield revealed at halftime that he knew Vikings’ signs

Bucs running back Rachaad White said that Mayfield came into the lockerroom at halftime and revealed that he knew what the Vikings were calling.

“We’re in there talking as an offense and he’s like, ‘I know all these signals. If they do this, they’re going into Cover 2,” White said during an interview on Bucs radio. “If they do this, they’re going into cover 3. Every time I alert this and they do this signal, they’re dropping back to this.’ And I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing.’ . . . I was just listening to him and we were listening to him and we just kind of understood.”

Whatever Baker Mayfield did, it wasn’t against the NFL rules. If you recognize an opposing team’s hand signs, that’s on them, not you. Mayfield, the No. 1 pick of the 2018 NFL Draft, knows plenty about opposing teams. After all, the Bucs are the third team he’s played for in the past season, and the fourth overall.

Mayfield called the sign recognition making “adjustments.”

“When it comes down to that, you’re always trying to find tendencies of the defense,” Mayfield told reporters “Just those in-game adjustments, you’re trying to find those tendencies and sometimes it’s a little different than others. That’s why, like I said post-game, it was a chess match there in the first half with some stall-out drives.”