The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a contract situation on their hands with Baker Mayfield.
As the Buccaneers prepare for the 2026 season, their star quarterback, Mayfield, is unhappy with his current deal. Among the top-level quarterbacks in the league, Mayfield is the lowest paid at $33 million per year. While there has been no progress on a new deal before the start of training camp, the 31-year-old quarterback has been a participant in the teams offseason activities.
Head coach Todd Bowles, who has coached Mayfield since his arrival during the 2023 season, said that his star quarterback is “all business” despite the contract stall.
“Baker’s all business. He’s all about business,” Bowles said. “The contract stuff takes care of itself. That’s the business side of it that you don’t see, that everybody has to deal with, and I’m sure he’ll take care of it, but it doesn’t affect his play.”
Baker Mayfield Has Established Himself as Buccaneers’ Franchise QB
Mayfield is coming off of another productive season, throwing 26 touchdowns against 11 interceptions while posting a 90.6 passer rating. That’s a year after Mayfield threw 41 touchdowns for a 106.8 passer rating, the highest single season marks of his career. The 41 touchdowns were the second-highest in the NFL and he became the fourth quarterback in NFL history to throw at least 40 touchdowns with 4,000 passing yards and a 70% completion rate in a single season.
The two-time Pro Bowl quarterback is entering the final year of a three-year, $100 million contract extension he signed in 2024. Mayfield has set a hard deadline of before training camp for contract talks.
“Baker’s a true pro,” Bowles said. “I don’t think there’s any disappointment whatsoever. I mean, he loves it here. We love him here. The contract stuff takes care of itself, whether it’s the quarterback or any other position that comes up — those things get worked out over time. You just concentrate on what we got to concentrate on, on the field, and he’s been great right there.”
Former NFL GM Predicts Baker Mayfield to Sign Lucrative Deal With Buccaneers
Former NFL general Tom Telesco — he served in that role for the Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders franchise — predicted that Mayfield will end up signing a deal for $50 million-plus per year, which is on par with all of the top quarterbacks in the league. There are 12 quarterbacks earning at least $50 million on an average annual basis.
He also predicts that it’ll be stretched out all the way to right before the start of training camp.
“If you’re the club, you, you probably stretch it all the way to right be right before camp. You try and save as much money as you can because you want to use that money in other players,” Telesco told SiriusXM NFL Radio. “It’s not like the money you save on on Baker goes into your pocket and you keep it, you’re gonna spend on another players.
“I’m sure they’d probably figure, look, it’s gonna start with a ‘5,’” said Telesco. “That’s just where it is now. I don’t know where their camp is as far as how much above 50 they want to go, but it’s probably gonna be in that 50 range. And you know, that still doesn’t even put [Mayfield] in the top 10 [of quarterback salaries I don’t think at that position. So it sounds like a lot, but he’s a solid starting quarterback for them and he’s played well for them.”
We’ll see when the deal is closed, but it’s hard to imagine the Buccaneers moving forward without their star quarterback when he’s in the prime of his career.
Buccaneers’ Todd Bowles’ 3-Word Message on Baker Mayfield Contract Talks