Todd Bowles voiced strong support for Mayfield, saying he has no doubts about his QB long term despite extension talks remaining far apart.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers haven’t set themselves up for the quietest offseason with their inability to lock up their signal caller long term. But as that deadline is looming, Bucs coach Todd Bowles is backing his quarterback, and shut down any talks of them not wanting Baker Mayfield in that role long term.
But it’s a very real impasse on contract talks as they put on a public face of support, and as the training camp deadline grows closer, there’s certainly feelings of uncertainty about the Bucs future.
Mayfield is currently in the final year of his three-year, $100 million deal, and Mayfield reported last week that the two sides are nowhere near each other in talks. If there isn’t a new deal before the late July report date, Mayfield’s agent, Tom Mills, says that they’ll shut those talks down to focus on football, after which Mayfield would become an unrestricted free agent in 2027 should no deal get done.
To read more about the coach’s public backing of Mayfield and what the status of the situation is, here is the full story from Bucs Roundtable writer Jason Klingensmith.
Now, Mayfield has led Tampa Bay to a 27-24 record while he’s been there. After signing a one-year deal worth up to $8.5 million in 2023, he immediately answered with back-to-back NFC South titles and kept stability in the organization that saw Tom Brady quickly come and go with a Super Bowl title.
But they haven’t exactly gotten over the hump with Mayfield yet. Whether or not that’s a factor in these discussions is likely not going to see the light of day, but both sides have to hope that this conclusion comes sooner than later.
