The strong Baker Mayfield insinuation yesterday that the Bucs offered him a two-year contract extension at less than $50 million per year is highly dubious.

Mayfield told Jeremy Fowler of ESPN that he lobbied the Bucs to be in the $50 million quarterback club without asking for a change-the-market deal. But, per Mayfield, he didn’t get that offer.

A dozen NFL quarterbacks have contracts that pay an average of $50 million or more per season, per OverTheCap.com.

Jeremy Fowler: Did you make a stance that you belong in that top-10 [quarterback pay] range — 50-plus million dollars? That’s sort of the market and where you are.

Baker Mayfield: Yeah. And I told [the Bucs] and I said it publicly, I was never trying to reset the market. I know where I fit in on that. I’m not over-realistic on that. But it’s also, I know just to be compensated and put in that category, and salary cap keeps going up. And the guys that are going to re-sign next year, it’s going to look a lot different. So, at the end of the day, it’ll probably be still top-15 [quarterback pay] next year at this time. But it’s unfortunate they failed to recognize it.

Fowler: How far away were they from that range?

Mayfield: Pretty far.

Without providing hard numbers, that’s Mayfield essentially saying he didn’t get offered close to $50 million annually for 2027 and 2028. His contract expires after this season.

Fowler also asked Mayfield what value the Bucs placed on him in a contract-extension offer to make him feel disrespected and undervalued.

“It was all three — between years, average [salary] and guarantees,” Mayfield said. “Probably the most disappointing is years. Didn’t get offered anything over two [years].

Jenna Laine of ESPN.com wrote a story about this yesterday afternoon, and then came a mysterious night edit to the story. Fowler noted an update on X directing fans to check it out.

It sounds like Fowler talked to Mayfield’s agent — and someone tied to the Bucs — and Mayfield wasn’t truthful when it came to the money on a two-year extension.

The Buccaneers felt their offers in the final days of the negotiation were competitive, including a two-year deal worth slightly above $100 million in total, sources told Fowler.

Several factors went into Mayfield turning down the Bucs’ overtures, sources told Fowler:

Mayfield felt the structure of the contract was not suitable, mainly the guaranteed money.
Mayfield was adamant about wanting a longer commitment than two years.
Mayfield used contract comps such as Green Bay’s Jordan Love ($55 million per year), Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence ($55 million) and San Francisco’s Brock Purdy ($53 million) during the negotiation process. Mayfield’s camp felt Mayfield was among the league’s best bargain players in recent years, ranking third in passing yards (12,237) and second in touchdown passes (95) since 2023. That had to change.
And, perhaps mainly, Mayfield was long dismayed by the team’s low initial offer in June, to the point that one source close to him wondered whether that fueled his direct tone in his press conferences weeks later.

By the time the Bucs were set to report Tuesday, Mayfield called things off. Still, even without hitting Mayfield’s direct number, the Bucs felt they were closer in range than perceived, sources told Fowler.

Before June minicamp, Joe was told the Bucs were prepared to pay Mayfield more than $50 million annually on an extension — real money, not mystery math common in NFL contracts. The team wasn’t hiding its desire to “write that check,” as Buccaneers co-owner Joel Glazer said in the following exhange with JoeBucsFan.com at the NFL annual meeting in April.

JoeBucsFan.com: Is it your hope that something is resolved with Baker this offseason, with an extension that makes him a franchise quarterback beyond the three-year contract he has now?

Joel Glazer: That’s part of [GM] Jason [Licht’s] planning and everything. And I know Jason is looking at all, not only [Baker], any other contract. And it’s a constant thing that you look at. That’s something that Jason and [assistant GM] Mike [Greenberg] and his staff, [VP of football research] Jackie [Davidson], carefully evalute and there’s a time and a place for everything. And everything always takes care of itself.

JoeBucsFan.com: But is Baker your guy? Are you all on board with Baker?

Joel Glazer: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, he’s gone above and beyond anything we could have asked or hoped of Baker. Everybody loves him. He performs on the field, gives 250 percent when he’s on that field. And that’s all you can ask.

Before this line of questioning, Glazer said he has no issue paying top dollar for a franchise quarterback because that means things are going well.

“That doesn’t hurt at all to write that check,” Glazer said. “It’s something that all the teams do if you have a good quarterback.”

Was Mayfield telling the truth yesterday about his extension offer? Or does Mayfield have a bumbling agent who didn’t properly explain the Bucs’ offer to his client? That’s unclear.

Joe has no reason to believe the Bucs changed their stance on Mayfield or were foolish enough to offer Mayfield the equivalent (or less) than the projected 2027 franchise tag value and think he would smile and like that — and not make a public stink.

Sage of Tampa Bay Sports Ira Kaufman, the venerable JoeBucsFan.com columnist, has said many times over the past year that Team Glazer “couldn’t be happier with Mayfield” and has “no desire to start over with a new quarterback.”

Bucs fans should feel confident taking Kaufman’s words to the bank.

Mayfield is an emotional guy, so it makes sense that he’d be incensed by the Bucs not offering him an extension that includes the 2029 season. That’s fair. But to think the Bucs didn’t try to put Mayfield in the $50 million club is farfetched at best.