And I did mean that<\/a>,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t know if they thought I was just going to take some of the offers that they gave. But I\u2019m at the point of my career and understanding what I brought to this franchise \u2014 one, I\u2019m very, very grateful for the chance they gave me, do not get me wrong on that. But I also really know what I\u2019ve brought to this franchise leadership-wise and even play-wise. It\u2019s been some of the best years of my career. And I think it\u2019s only going to trend upwards. Just feeling comfortable in feeling that. <\/p>\n\u201cSo, disappointing in that regard to not have\u2026to feel disrespected a little bit. And that\u2019s really the disappointing part, to feel undervalued after thinking you\u2019ve earned it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports the Buccaneers offered Mayfield a two-year deal, which disappointed the QB. Mayfield told Fowler the Bucs were \u201cpretty far\u201d from a $50 million average annual value in the offer. <\/p>\n
Since Mayfield arrived in 2023, he\u2019s started every game for the franchise with a pair of postseason appearances. The club beat the Eagles in the 2023 postseason, but lost to Detroit in the divisional round before falling to Washington in the wild card round of the 2024 postseason. The team missed the playoffs in 2025.<\/p>\n
Overall, the Bucs have gone 27-24 in the regular season with Mayfield at QB over the last three seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a \u2018poor me\u2019 thing,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of other people who have it way worse off. But I can sit here and look at other quarterbacks and peers, and evaluate myself based on that and put myself in certain categories that, I deserve to be compensated for that. I think I\u2019m a franchise quarterback. I\u2019ve been told I\u2019m a franchise quarterback. It\u2019s been said publicly from ownership down, here. So to not have a deal done is very disappointing.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I said, the deadline was the deadline. I addressed the team to let them know I meant that. It\u2019s all ball. I\u2019m with these guys. I think all the guys that have been here know exactly who I am. The guys that are new here, I wanted to address that because they might\u2019ve had a notion prior to coming here about who I am as a person. But it\u2019s all team. It\u2019s all about winning here now and what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayfield noted that part of the reason for his start-of-camp deadline was to avoid the contract becoming a distraction.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, like I\u2019ve told you guys, it\u2019s all ball. I don\u2019t want to talk about it,\u201d Mayfield said, also noting that he\u2019s not going to answer questions about the contract after Thursday. \u201cAnd if you\u2019ve waited this long to take care of your franchise quarterback, that\u2019s too bad, because it\u2019s only going to get worse from here. I\u2019m going to have a really good year.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there is a chance the Bucs and Mayfield can put all of this behind them for an extension.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not talking to me, I know that,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cIf my agent answers it, he\u2019s not going to bother me with it unless it\u2019s actually recognized for my value.\u201d<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s the opportunity. As for the future, Mayfield doesn\u2019t see the Bucs tagging him next offseason (\u201cThere\u2019d be a lot of dead money,\u201d he said), but does anticipate their offer going up after a successful season.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, yes,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cBut, I\u2019ve been on the other side of the nasty business that is the NFL. And so, yeah, I have hope. But expecting and hoping [are] two different things. Yeah, I hope so. But all I can control is how I play this year and how the team does this year. And, for me, that\u2019s wins. Good things happen when the team wins. The rest should take care of itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if I hadn\u2019t gone through a couple of different situations earlier on in my career, I\u2019d probably be in a different head space,\u201d Mayfield added. \u201cIt also helps being a little bit more mature now, and having different priorities in life. But, yeah, I\u2019m at peace. I think what I\u2019ve done here is my resume and I think it spoke for itself. And so, if that\u2019s not recognized, that\u2019s OK. I\u2019m just going to continue to add to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite feeling disrespected, Mayfield noted that the potential for more money isn\u2019t his driving motivating factor.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. Money should never be the motivation in football,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cIt\u2019s, how do I help this team win? That\u2019s never going to be the motivation for me. When it comes to having a chip on your shoulder and all that, for me, it just puts me in the mindset of betting on myself. And that\u2019s something I\u2019m pretty familiar with. And it\u2019s a good place to be. As a high-competitive guy, sometimes you have to put yourself backed into a corner and fight your way out. But I have a lot of guys and a lot of staff around me that are with me. So, I\u2019m not alone in it. We\u2019re fighting for the same goal, and that\u2019s to be playing in February.\u201d<\/p>\n
And at this point, Mayfield says it\u2019s \u201creally easy\u201d to just focus on getting prepared for the upcoming regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re not presented with an offer that\u2019s appealing whatsoever, it\u2019s easy to turn the page,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cBut also, it\u2019s that time of the year where you\u2019re itching to get on the field. You\u2019re itching to see how this team comes together, how the offense comes together in a new system with a new coach. It\u2019s just the exciting time of year that, on paper, we\u2019ve got a lot of potential. But it\u2019s just potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we know we have to put that all together. So, yeah, it\u2019s easy to put that in the past when you\u2019re coming together with a great group like this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a frank press conference on Thursday morning, quarterback Baker Mayfield said he feels disrespected by the Buccaneers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-793745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}