{"id":843075,"date":"2026-08-04T09:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T09:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/843075\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T09:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T09:44:09","slug":"former-nfl-scout-has-jason-lichts-back-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/843075\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NFL Scout Has Jason Licht’s Back – JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Business is a cold world.<\/p>\n

Popular sports radio and TV personality Adam Schein likes to holler, \u201cYou gotta love sports!\u201d Why? Because the unpredictability of sports is great theatre.<\/p>\n

Well, Joe will take that a step further. \u201cYou gotta love drama!\u201d And thanks to Baker Mayfield, we have welcome drama that has made the 2026 Bucs training camp, well, fun!<\/p>\n

And the drama has transformed the Bucs, for the first time since Tom Brady was taking snaps for the team, into a nationally relevant squad.<\/p>\n

It has even caught the eye of outspoken former NFL scout and podcaster John Middlekauff. Speaking on his \u201c3 and Out\u201d podcast, Middlekauff says he has Jason Licht\u2019s back in the Mayfield contract hassle.<\/p>\n

In short, Middlekauff said absolutely the Bucs should be cautious about Mayfield\u2019s contract after what happened in 2025.<\/p>\n

Also, Mayfield is seemingly peeved over the Bucs telling him that he is their franchise quarterback but not offering a competitive salary for a franchise quarterback who has gotten the Bucs to the playoffs in three of the last four seasons.<\/p>\n

Middlekauff suggested in the business world, saying one thing and doing another is common, if not standard operating procedure.<\/p>\n

Middlekauff said words don\u2019t mean a damn thing<\/a>. But actions do. And that\u2019s why Team Glazer (?) and Licht have not overreacted to the number of zeros on Mayfield\u2019s offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWords in the real world in business don\u2019t mean sh!t,\u201d Middlekauff said. \u201cI\u2019d argue words in general are pretty meaningless. Actions define everything, and right now the Bucs\u2019 actions are. \u2018Yeah, we got some question marks.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHow could they not? Because last year in a godawful division, they couldn\u2019t make the playoffs. I have no problem with Baker Mayfield being p!ssed off, everything he\u2019s heard, what he feels he\u2019s done for the organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I got no issue with Jason Light [not going overboard]. If I was in his shoes, I would do the same thing. We got to play this out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Middlekauff pointed out there are a lot of moving parts behind the scenes that are indirectly affecting Mayfield\u2019s contract. The biggest one Middlekauff noted was KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles\u2019 job security.<\/p>\n

The implication Joe gets from Middlekauff is that if the Bucs move on from Bowles after this season, would the top coaching candidates want Mayfield as their starting quarterback?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m rooting for Baker Mayfield to do well,\u201d Middlekauff said. \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t go that well \u2026 things will get weird. Things will get weird fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

How weird? Middlekauff didn\u2019t elaborate. The Joe typing here is in the same camp. Joe likes Mayfield but that 2-7 stretch to end the season has this-Joe spooked.<\/p>\n

And Joe is confident if Mayfield lights up the NFL this year as many predict, Team Glazer would be happy to pony up for a true, proven franchise quarterback.<\/p>\n

Too many teams don\u2019t have a franchise quarterback. You either have one, or you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Business is a cold world. Popular sports radio and TV personality Adam Schein likes to holler, \u201cYou gotta…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,127296,127295,593,85,1247],"class_list":["post-843075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bucs-message-boards","tag-bucs-news","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}