The reunions continue for Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield. After the Bucs’ freshly extended quarterback faced off with the team that drafted him and the quarterback who replaced him, he will now face off with his former college teammate. Mayfield will take on fellow Heisman winner and Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray when his Bucs take on the Minnesota Vikings in Week 3.
Mayfield opened up about his time with Murray as well as his perception of the league before the two faced off. It is clear that Mayfield has a strong level of respect for his former teammate.
“Just spending a couple of years with him at school and getting him to know him as a person, he has a reputation on the outside,” admitted Mayfield. “But once you get to know the guy, listen, I understand why people don’t like him; don’t get me wrong, I could say the same thing about myself, but once you get to know him you really appreciate the worker that he is, he knows what he wants, he knows his goals, he works extremely hard to get those.”
Mayfield was at Oklahoma from 2014 through 2017. Murray was at Oklahoma from 2016 through 2018. Mayfield lost his chance at revenge against Deshaun Watson last week and will try to rebound against Murray.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield Opens up on Minnesota Vikings QB Kyler Murray
Murray followed Mayfield as a starter at Oklahoma. They both won the Heisman and were drafted first overall. However, now there are fears that Mayfield will end up following Murray when it comes to his contract extension with the Bucs.
The Arizona Cardinals gave Murray a big contract extension despite some questions about his long-term stability. He had injury questions along with questions about how high his ceiling was. Murray signed a five-year, $230M deal in 2022.
He spent the next three seasons with the Cardinals and only had a healthy season in one of those years. Murray had eight starts in 2023 and five starts in 2025.
The Cardinals released him, and he currently has a $46M dead cap hit for a team he is not playing for. Now that the Bucs have extended Mayfield, the fear is that it could end in a similar manner.
Bucs May Regret Mayfield Extension
Mayfield signed a three-year, $165M extension this offseason. The big money and years are what make the deal similar to Murray. However, the Bucs can get out of the deal a bit easier.
Mayfield is obviously on the books for this year. The team is locked into him for one more year. However, his dead cap hit gets a lot smaller after that due to the lack of guaranteed money.
So, the Cardinals had three years of Murray not living up to his deal, followed by another year of being straddled by his cap hit. At worst, the Bucs will have two years of Mayfield letting the team down before they move on.
It could end up being a bad deal, but not quite as bad as the Cardinals extension with Murray.
Bucs QB Baker Mayfield Gets Candid About Kyler Murray