Veteran quarterback Baker Mayfield has the Tampa Bay Buccaneers rolling this season. The Buccaneers lead the NFC South with a 5-1 record before they play the Detroit Lions on “Monday Night Football” in Week 7.
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Mayfield is squarely in the hunt for the league MVP, throwing for 1,539 yards, 12 touchdowns and one interception through the first six games. The 2018 No. 1 pick by the Cleveland Browns has added 158 yards on the ground.
Mayfield signed a three-year contract extension worth $100 million in 2024. With his play reaching elite status this year, there is curiosity about whether the Buccaneers feel any pressure to extend the contract of the 30-year-old quarterback during the season.
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Per Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the Buccaneers do not plan to consider offering Mayfield a contract extension until after the season, that is, if Tampa Bay has “any” talks with the quarterback before he plays under the final year of his current deal.
“Baker Mayfield, an early MVP front-runner, has one year remaining on his contract after 2025,” Russini wrote. “And I’m told any extension talks will happen after the season, giving Mayfield space to focus on his third year in Tampa and the Bucs time to evaluate what’s next.”
The wording of “any” feels a little odd given how well Mayfield has played in Tampa Bay. It appears the Buccaneers aren’t completely sold on offering a contract extension to the winner of the 2017 Heisman Trophy after the season.
If Mayfield played through 2026 without an extension, he’d become a free agent in 2027.
Regardless of Mayfield’s future, Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht is appreciative of the toughness he’s brought to Tampa Bay.
“We wanted a tougher team,” Licht told Russini. “And holy ****, did that happen. He’s still the last quarterback to win a playoff game for the Browns — and he was pretty **** close to winning two. The day we signed him, I went to my favorite dive bar to get wings. I called him from there.
“Looking back, it feels like the perfect setting — because I’ve always said he’s a man of the people, not about flash.”
It’ll be interesting to see if the Buccaneers feel more urgency to get a new deal done with Mayfield after the season. If he continues to play like he has through the first six games, his price will only go up.
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