On Football: Baker Mayfield's success in Tampa Bay has turned him into a coach-builder

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Baker Mayfield revived his career in Tampa Bay and became a coach-builder in the process.

Mayfield’s success with the Buccaneers in 2023 helped Dave Canales become head coach of the Carolina Panthers after just one season as an offensive coordinator. Mayfield has played even better under Liam Coen, who will be among the top candidates for coaching vacancies this offseason.

The Buccaneers (9-7) need a victory over the Saints (5-11) on Sunday to clinch their fourth straight NFC South title. With Mayfield and the offense playing at a high level, Tampa Bay has an opportunity to extend its season deep into January. The Buccaneers advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs last season before losing at Detroit.

At some point, Coen will get an opportunity to interview with other teams. The Jets, Saints and Bears are looking for new coaches with more openings to come next week.

Coen is focused on the task in front of him with the Bucs.

“That was one of the best Sundays I’ve had in a long time, man,” Coen said Thursday about a 48-14 victory over the Panthers. “And I wasn’t thinking about anything else besides this. So really, at the end of the day, that stuff can wait a long time if it’s the right thing. And for us to keep moving forward doing the right things, we can wait a long time on that one.”

Last year, Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson had several interviews but decided to return to Detroit instead of accepting a head coach position. He’ll be a hot candidate again this cycle.

Coen could follow a similar path, talk to a few teams, gain valuable interview experience and stay another year in Tampa Bay if the right situation isn’t available.

“Yeah, I do believe I’m ready to do so. I don’t think you’re ever truly fully ready, but yeah, that is a dream,” Coen said of his coaching aspirations. “Does that need to happen when I’m 39 years old and having probably the most fun of my life coaching and working and being here? No, that doesn’t mean that needs to occur right now. But yeah, that is the goal. That is absolutely the goal. But like I said before, that goal can hold off for a while here and continue to do what we’re doing. That would be pretty special.”

Mayfield threw for 4,044 yards with 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions for a 94.6 passer rating in 2023. The Buccaneers had the 23rd-ranked offense in total yards, 17th in passing and last in rushing. They averaged 20.5 points per game.

This season, Mayfield has 4,279 yards passing, 39 TDs, 15 interceptions and a 107.6 passer rating. His 71.7 completion percentage is tied with Jared Goff for fifth-best in a single season. The Buccaneers are third in total offense, third in passing and fourth in rushing. They’re scoring 29.7 points per game.

“Great offensive coordinators always dial things up to the strengths of their players, and that’s what Liam has done,” Mayfield said. “He’s had to adjust on the fly. We were looking at this thing being in a lot of ’11′ personnel early in the year and then adjusting and seeing how this run game is growing. ... That package has just continued to grow. The great ones adjust, and Liam has done just that.”

Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles is on the verge of winning his third division title in three seasons with three different offensive coordinators. He fired Byron Leftwich following the 2022 season, just two years after the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl with Tom Brady. Canales came in from Seattle and brought out the best in Mayfield, who bounced around from the Browns to the Panthers to the Rams in 2022.

Coen spent 2023 as Kentucky’s offensive coordinator after serving in that role under Sean McVay with the Rams when Mayfield started four games for Los Angeles.

“It’s really attention to detail,” Bowles said about what Coen does best. “I think it all starts with the run game — how can we run it off of this? How can we throw it off of this? What did we do last week? What do we see? What do they see? And kind of putting it together that way so with the coaches collaborating upstairs and then giving it to the players and feeding it downstairs and Baker executing it all on the field — the camaraderie and the coordination with those guys, the chemistry of seeing it the same way has been very good.”

It all starts with Mayfield, the former No. 1 overall pick discarded by Cleveland when the Browns made a regretful trade for Deshaun Watson. His success turned Canales into a head coach and could do the same for Coen.

First, they have important business together in Tampa Bay. Everything else can wait.

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield passes for a touchdown against the Carolina Panthers during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

FILE - Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen looks on from the sidelines during an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas, Dec. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Jerome Miron, File)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Sudan filed a case at the top United Nations court accusing the United Arab Emirates of breaching the genocide convention by arming and funding the rebel paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces in Sudan’s deadly war, the court announced Thursday. The UAE called the filing a publicity stunt and said it would seek to have the case dismissed.

The International Court of Justice said Sudan’s case, filed Wednesday, concerns acts allegedly perpetrated by the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias including “genocide, murder, theft of property, rape, forcible displacement, trespassing, vandalism of public properties, and violation of human rights” targeting the Masalit people.

The United Arab Emirates issued a statement after the filing asserting the case was a “nothing more than a cynical publicity stunt.” It said it would seek the “immediate dismissal” of the case.

The filing is “aimed at diverting attention from the established complicity of the Sudanese Armed Forces in the widespread atrocities that continue to devastate Sudan and its people,” the UAE statement said, referring to the government-backed forces fighting in the war.

Both the RSF and the Sudanese military have been accused of abuses in the war.

Sudan alleges that the UAE was “complicit in the genocide on the Masalit through its direction of and provision of extensive financial, political, and military support for the rebel RSF militia,” the court said.

Sudan also asked the court to impose urgent interim orders known as provisional measures on the UAE, including doing all it can to prevent the killing and other crimes targeting the Masalit.

Sudan descended into a deadly conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary rebels broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions.

The war has killed more than 24,000 people and driven over 14 million people — about 30% of the population — from their homes, according to the United Nations. An estimated 3.2 million Sudanese have escaped to neighboring countries.

The case at the world court was announced less than two weeks after the Rapid Support Forces and its allies signed a charter that paved the way for the establishment of a parallel government, following recent advances by Sudan’s army against the rival groups.

The group Conflict Observatory, which is funded by the U.S. State Department and has been monitoring the war in Sudan, has identified aircraft it says carried UAE arms transfers to the RSF. Those flights went through Aéroport International Maréchal Idriss Deby in Amdjarass, Chad — flights the UAE has claimed have been for supporting a local hospital.

In January, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa, also known as Hemedti, had been targeted for sanctions along with seven RSF-owned companies in the United Arab Emirates, including one handling gold likely smuggled out of Sudan. That came as the U.S. declared the RSF are committing genocide.

The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and a U.S. ally, has been repeatedly accused of arming the RSF, something it has strenuously denied despite evidence to the contrary.

The UAE said it has been calling for an immediate ceasefire in the war.

“The Sudanese Armed Forces’ application to the ICJ does not absolve it from its legal and moral responsibility for its criminal acts and the catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the country,” the UAE said.

Two decades ago, the Sudanese region of Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias, against populations that identify as Central or East African. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.

Rulings by the International Court of Justice, also known as the world court, take years to reach and are legally binding.

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.

FILE - Delegates sing during a planned signing ceremony of the Sudan Founding Charter aimed at establishing a unity government involving leaders of political forces, armed groups, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, on Feb. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Kasuku)

FILE - A man walks by a house hit in recent fighting in Khartoum, Sudan, an area torn by fighting between the military and the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, on April 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali, File)