“Greeny, Albert Breer said I’m going to wrap up the Baker Mayfield signing. What do you think?”
It seems the Bucs will resume talks with quarterback Baker Mayfield’s camp this week. And one well-plugged-in NFL insider wouldn’t be shocked if a deal gets done before the regular season.
We have heard several reports, including late last week, that the Bucs and Mayfield are not close on a contract. Mayfield is about to enter the final year of a three-year deal with the Bucs.
Albert Breer of SI.com typed that the two sides are scheduled to resume talks this week. Breer thinks the Bucs will make a major push to get this wrapped up.
In the past, Mayfield has said his deadline is the start of training camp. The first Bucs practice of training camp is a week from tomorrow, June 29.
Breer, in the past, scoffed at Mayfield’s deadline. He noted — and Joe fully agrees — that if Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht offers Mayfield what he’s looking for, of course Mayfield will sign the deal whether it is June 30, sometime in August or in the middle of the regular season.
Breer also noted that the Bucs have a recent history of coming to terms with players in the middle of training camp. Tristan Wirfs is Exhibit A.
I think they’ll get something done before Week 1. This isn’t overly complicated. Mayfield is due to make $40 million this year, the final year of the three-year, $100 million deal he and the Bucs agreed to. So he doesn’t have to overextend himself to get a contract. The franchise tag for quarterbacks projects to just over $50 million for 2027, meaning two tags would be just north of $110 million total. That sets the APY at $55 million per year, which is right around where Justin Herbert, Jared Goff, Trevor Lawrence and Jordan Love are.
Breer said his educated guess is that Mayfield gets paid slightly north of $50 million a year on a three-year pact.
So something in the range of $165 million over another three years makes sense, or a little more than that to account for inflation over the aforementioned deals.
The Joe typing here is still triggered by the Bucs’ 2-7 meltdown last year and for better or worse, Mayfield was part of that. Mayfield didn’t miss a start.
That’s why the same Joe typing here would prefer the Bucs wait until after the season to see how Mayfield bounces back so the team doesn’t potentially chain itself to a quarterback with a history of injuries on the wrong side of 30.
Still, everything Joe has heard on and off the record is it is very likely Mayfield will be the Bucs’ starting quarterback in 2027, some way, somehow.