{"id":394387,"date":"2026-09-09T03:44:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T03:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/394387\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T03:44:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T03:44:41","slug":"tampa-bay-buccaneers-predicted-to-strike-contract-extension-with-baker-mayfield-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/394387\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Buccaneers Predicted to Strike Contract Extension With Baker Mayfield Soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> are entering a pivotal season, not just with Baker Mayfield<\/a> entering a contract year, but possibly with Todd Bowles on the hot seat after another campaign of playoff-less football. That\u2019s likely not something the Bucs can afford, and should they miss the postseason, the blame will surely fall on the shoulders of Mayfield, Bowles, and possibly even general manager Jason Licht. <\/p>\n

Yet, the biggest story here may be Mayfield, who has no interest in continuing to negotiate a contract extension once Tampa Bay\u2019s regular season officially kicks off. But the Buccaneers haven\u2019t started playing games that count quite yet, not until Sunday. Now there\u2019s a belief that the tide could still turn between Mayfield and the front office. <\/p>\n

Related: 5 Fantasy Football Players You Should Bench in Week 1<\/a><\/p>\n

NFL Insider Expects Baker Mayfield Contract Extension Before Opener<\/p>\n

\"BakerDec 21, 2025; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) reacts after a touchdown during the first half against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn ImagesCredit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

Mayfield is in the final season of the three-year, $100 million contract signed with Tampa Bay in March of 2024. His $39.97 million cap hit is a high number, one that the Bucs may want to trim down a bit to have more room under the salary cap. More importantly, they likely want to lock in their franchise quarterback past the end of this season. <\/p>\n

According to Sports Illustrated\u2018s NFL insider Albert Breer<\/a>, there may still be enough time for Mayfield and the Bucs to strike a new deal. <\/p>\n

\u201cI still think there\u2019s a deal to be done between the Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield. But it\u2019s going to take someone reengaging over the next six days. On one hand, there haven\u2019t been any substantive negotiations since the start of camp, with Mayfield sticking to his word that if it wasn\u2019t done by then, he was shelving it until after the season. On the other, the two sides weren\u2019t that far apart earlier in the summer. And the Buccaneers showed their willingness to get a market deal done closer to the season again (after doing such deals with Tristan Wirfs, Zyon McCollum and Luke Goedeke the last two years), by giving Vita Vea the sort of bump, with a one-year extension, that Dexter Lawrence got in Cincinnati. So will someone pick up the phone this week?\u201d<\/p>\n

SI\u2019s Albert Breer on Baker Mayfield<\/p>\n

That would be great news if the Bucs and Mayfield could actually strike a deal. But as Breer notes, it would require someone actually picking up the phone and being willing to alter their previous stance. Though, as Breer wrote, the \u201ctwo sides weren\u2019t that far apart earlier in the summer,\u201d so maybe they\u2019re still not that far off. <\/p>\n

Related: 2026 NFL QB Rankings: Best, Worst Starting QBs Before Week 1<\/a><\/p>\n

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\t\tDedicated NFL copywriter\/editor. My work has been found on Sportsnaut, Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, MSN, Yahoo, and Minnesota Sports … More about Andrew Buller-Russ<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are entering a pivotal season, not just with Baker Mayfield entering a contract year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[9909,135,2964,137,136],"class_list":["post-394387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-baker-mayfield","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}