Stalled contract negotiations could push Baker Mayfield to reject a record extension and leave Tampa Bay, fueled by a perceived lack of appreciation from the front office.
An NFL insider predicts that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers could make QB Baker Mayfield a great offer next spring, and it may not be enough to keep him in Tampa.
By all accounts, Mayfield likes it in Tampa.
It’s the place where, professionally, he revitalized his career after being dumped by the Cleveland Browns.
Personally, it’s where Mayfield and his wife, Emily, have started a family and are raising two children. But Mayfield’s contract expires at the end of this season, and he would like a new deal before training camp so he can focus on playing. With less than three weeks to go before the Bucs start camp, the sides still are nowhere near getting something done, and one analyst feels that, if the Bucs wait too long to offer Mayfield something he likes, he might leave, even if it’s a great deal.
"They may offer him more than anyone else will offer,” Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk said on PFT PM Tuesday, “and come March of 2027, Baker Mayfield may take less from another team just to stick it to the Buccaneers for not doing the right thing, for not offering him more, for not showing greater appreciation, "'I’ll take less to go to a team that really wants me and is willing to overextend what it even thought it would do, even if that’s less than what I’d get from the Buccaneers.'"
Mayfield is known to take things personally.
When he was a rookie with the Browns, he stared down his former head coach, Hue Jackson, after throwing a touchdown against the Cincinnati Bengals, where Jackson had become an assistant after being fired midseason.
Almost four years after the Browns got rid of Mayfield in favor of Deshaun Watson, Mayfield publicly expressed ill will toward his head coach in Cleveland, Kevin Stefanski, who is now in Tampa’s division as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons.
Then, of course, there’s “the crotch grab” against Kansas during his Heisman Trophy season at Oklahoma. So, yeah, Florio’s point lines up with what seems to be one of Mayfield’s personality traits. Mayfield is currently the league’s 16th-highest-paid quarterback, making $33.3 million annually. Some have suggested Mayfield’s next deal could be in the neighborhood of what Jordan Love (four years, $220 million), Daniel Jones (two years, $88 million) and Jared Goff (four years, $212 million) have received in recent years.
The good news for Bucs fans is that another top insider isn’t as worried about Tampa reaching an extension with Mayfield.
Mike Garafolo said earlier this week that, while the sides remain far apart, “there’s confidence” that a deal will indeed get done.
Mayfield is 31, so depending on the length of his next contract, wherever he signs, it could be the place where he retires.
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