Big payday coming?
Someone is going to come after Joe for being a Baker Mayfield hater here. That’s as false a charge as there is.
“This Joe” doesn’t believe any NFL quarterback has better intangibles than Mayfield. Last year was proof. How many games did Mayfield win for the Bucs by putting the team on his back and willing them to a win in the first half of the season? Three, four, five?
There was a good reason that by midseason Mayfield was in sober talks with the NFL elite about being the league’s Most Valuable Player.
And then… splat. It was like there was an imposter wearing No. 6. Like there were two different quarterbacks: pre-bye Baker and post-bye Baker.
As good as the pre-bye Baker was, the post-bye Baker was almost as bad.
Yeah, there are reasons. Mayfield was clearly hurt. His guards were so rotten, the county dump wouldn’t accept them. He had a revolving door of running backs and receivers due to injuries.
But, there’s a reason folks say quarterbacks lead (and make bank).
The Bucs went from 6-2 to losing 7 of their final 9 games, including galling losses to the slimy Saints at home, the Stinking Panthers on the road, the tanking Dolphins in Miami Gardens and an appalling choke job of a loss to the Dixie Chicks on national TV on a Thursday night. That really stuck in Joe’s craw.
One win. If Mayfield could have found a way to get one win in those seven losses, the Bucs are in the playoffs, winning another division and who knows, Mike Evans and Lavonte David might still be with the Bucs today?
It seems Jeff Howe of The Athletic may have missed that second half of the Bucs season. He seems to be of the mind the Bucs are going to work hard to extend Mayfield’s contract, typing that Mayfield has earned a raise.
But now that he has more than proven his worth as a franchise quarterback, don’t assume his next pact will remain among the most team-friendly in the NFL.
Did Mayfield prove he was a franchise quarterback? Joe doesn’t know of too many franchise quarterbacks that go from 6-2 with a shot at the No. 1 seed to 8-9 playing in a trash division watching the playoffs from their couch, losing to godawful teams in the process.
Joe is all-in for Mayfield getting a top-10 new contract (he’s currently No. 16 in quarterback salaries, per Howe), provided the pre-bye Baker guides the Bucs back to the playoffs.
If post-bye Baker shows up again and the team goes south, with the 2027 draft expected to be absolutely loaded with top-shelf quarterbacks, Joe doesn’t know how you could throw megamoney to Mayfield for being Jameis II.
Mayfield has to turn those fantastic intangibles into season-long production and a return to the playoffs.