An anonymous league insider proposes a lucrative extension mirroring Sam Darnold's Seattle deal, balancing high-stakes guaranteed money with the pressure to deliver a Super Bowl run.
Baker Mayfield's contract situation will be one of the biggest storylines surrounding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a while, and one NFL executive has a suggestion for what the Bucs should do with their quarterback.
Speaking anonymously with NFL insider Jason La Canfora, an anonymous "longtime personnel executive" said that the Bucs should offer Mayfield a deal similar to the one the Seattle Seahawks gave their QB, Sam Darnold.
Last March, the Seahawks signed Darnold, who was a free agent, to a $3 year, $100.5 million deal with $55 million in guaranteed money.
Mayfield is entering the last year of a similar deal: three years, $100 million with $50 million guaranteed.
Less than a year after signing Darnold, the Seahawks won the Super Bowl.
"I think there are some similarities with the players," the executive told La Canfora. "You worry about the interceptions, can they get you over the top? It’s not totally similar, and Darnold was on the market, and this is an extension. That’s the structure I would be looking at."
Darnold ended last season with 25 touchdown passes, 14 interceptions and 4,048 yards.
Mayfield had one more touchdown pass and three fewer interceptions, but threw for fewer yards at 3,693.
This is hardly the first time Mayfield and Darnold have been linked together. They were the top two quarterbacks taken in the 2018 draft, with Mayfield going first overall to the Cleveland Browns and Darnold going two picks later to the New York Jets.
Neither one of them became franchise saviors for the team that drafted them.
Mayfield was with the Browns for four seasons, and although there were highlights, such as Mayfield quarterbacking the team to its first playoff win in more than a quarter-century in 2021, the team decided to move on from him in favor of Deshaun Watson, a decision that Mayfield is still mad about.
Darnold didn't even play out his rookie contract with the Jets, being traded to the Carolina Panthers before the 2021 season.
He spent two seasons in Carolina and was even teammates with Mayfield for the first six weeks of the 2022 season, before Mayfield was released and then signed just in time for a cup of coffee with head coach Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams.
In 2023, Darnold and Mayfield each found new homes, with Darnold signing with the San Francisco 49ers and Mayfield coming to Tampa.
During the three seasons since, Mayfield has had a more stable career, staying in Tampa, whereas Darnold has played for a different team each season (Minnesota Vikings in 2024, Seahawks last year).
But Darnold was the first to get a ring.
Since winning their last Super Bowl in the 2020 season, the Bucs have been regulars in the playoffs, but have yet to make it past the divisional round.
To get to a higher level, Tampa will need strong quarterback play, and La Canfora doesn't know if they're a team that will draft high enough to land a franchise QB.
"Tampa remains in a division that looks pretty winnable most years," La Canfora wrote, "and they tend to win too many games to pick high enough for a QB derby in the draft.
He then added:
"People seem to think this has ample potential to get done."
How realistic this is depends on how affordable it is for the Bucs.
It's been reported that Mayfield's next contract could pay him as much as $50 million a year. The Bucs could also use the franchise tag on Mayfield, but that would require a salary cap hit as high as $50 million, which isn't ideal.
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