11:55 p.m.: Mayfield’s deal includes $110 million in new guarantees, ESPN’s Dan Graziano reports. With $40 million already guaranteed for 2026, there is a total guaranteed figure of $150 million in the quarterback’s third deal with the Bucs, one that is now official. The total guarantee figure and future vesting dates are not yet known, but the $110 million in new guarantees is certainly a solid figure for a player who was set to play on a $33.3 million per year contract this season. This guarantee figure should cover Mayfield’s money through 2028, according to Greg Auman of Fox Sports, who adds that the 2029 season will not be guaranteed. 4:15 p.m.: Turns out the Buccaneers won’t let Baker Mayfield enter a contract year. Despite the quarterback indicating he did not plan to negotiate after the start of training camp, ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport report that the team and the player agreed to a three-year extension. Mayfield landed a three-year, $165 million deal, Schefter reports. This will put him firmly in the $50 million per year club, with the $55 million AAV matching the numbers of Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Jordan Love and Matthew Stafford. The contract will tie Mayfield to the Bucs through his age-34 season. Burrow and Lawrence gave their respective teams seven years of control over their extensions, which occurred with two years left on their rookie contracts, while Love reached an AAV of $55 million by joining the Packers for five seasons. Allen’s 2025 extension gave the Bills control over his rights through 2030. Mayfield will now sign through the 2029 season.
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This comes out of nowhere, considering Mayfield released his schedule and announced upon reporting to Bucs camp that he would honor his three-year, $100 million contract. Tampa Bay has regularly been willing to let core players play out their contract years. The team successfully re-signed a number of key cogs, from Mike Evans to Chris Godwin, Jamel Dean, Carlton Davis, Shaq Barrett and Mayfield (in 2024), is approaching or reaching free agency after completing a deal. But Mayfield has shown a lot in his second contract with the Bucs; the team determined he was too valuable for negotiations to resume just before free agency, the club’s 2024 schedule. At $55 million per year, Mayfield jumps ahead of Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, Jared Goff and Brock Purdy to match the Allen-Burrow-Lawrence-Love-Stafford quintet. This group is behind only Patrick Mahomes and Dak Prescott in QB AAV. Although the guarantee structure will be critical here, this is a monstrous raise for Mayfield after being outside the top 15 among quarterback salaries to start the week. It will be imperative to focus on the full guarantees of this contract and future award dates, because the Bucs have gone from doubting a Mayfield deal in this range to authorizing it days before the season. Tampa Bay has now reached agreements with Vita Vea following a trade request and with Mayfield after he expressed displeasure with how negotiations went this offseason. The 31-year-old quarterback said he felt “disrespected” by previous offers from the Bucs that “were not attractive at all.” It was later reported that Tampa Bay eclipsed $50 million per year, but only with a two-year offer. Mayfield wanted a three-year commitment, according to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, who adds that Tampa Bay’s previous proposal was for around $50 million AAV. It stands to reason that the Bucs also included a better guarantee structure than they had when the sides broke off talks in late July. Although Mayfield has never reached a conference championship game, his resume (and the most recent increase in the salary cap, which raised the NFL’s spending ceiling to $301.2 million) is not out of step with some of the QBs he now joins as the third-highest-paid players in the league. Lawrence and Love had negotiating advantages entering age-26 seasons as franchise-level contenders in Jacksonville and Green Bay, and those deals were done in 2024, when the cap hit was $255.4 million. Hurts, Jackson, Herbert and Burrow signed their deals in 2023 (with a cap hit of $224.8 million). While Mayfield’s 31 year separates him from most players in the $50MM-AAV club, Goff was entering a age-30 season when he signed his deal with the Lions for $53MM per year in 2024. Stafford, now 38, skyrocketed to the NFL’s highest salary level with a one-year raise this offseason. The Rams used several gap years to keep Stafford’s cap numbers down; It would make sense for the Bucs to proceed similarly. Structures driven by the gap year helped the Bucs establish Mayfield in the first place. Tom Brady’s two-year, $50 million extension included fictitious years that reduced the QB legend’s cap hits, creating a $35 million dead money bill when he retired again in 2023. The Bucs didn’t enter the Derek Carr or Jimmy Garoppolo markets that offseason, but they ended up with the top player on a one-year, $4 million deal. Mayfield was coming off a rough patch, struggling to play due to a left shoulder injury with the Browns in 2021 and ranking last in QBR during a 2022 season split between Carolina and Los Angeles. Mayfield’s short stay with the Rams, after a waiver claim, certainly helped him as a 2023 UFA; The former No. 1 overall pick’s bet on himself has worked wonders. A Bucs team that has struggled to find QB continuity throughout their history has found it from an unlikely source, and this contract positions Mayfield to potentially become the first quarterback to be a seven-year starter in Tampa. However, we are a long way from that perspective becoming a reality. Although Mayfield’s two Pro Bowl nods (2023, 2024) were as alternatives, he has established himself as a solid option for a Bucs team that lacked an easy route to replace Brady. Mayfield posted back-to-back 4,000-yard passing seasons in 2023 and 2024, helping his first two Bucs offensive coordinators (Dave Canales, Liam Coen) land HC jobs. Mayfield posted career highs across the board under Coen: 4,500 yards, 41 TD passes (and 16 INTs), 71.4% completion rate, 7.9 yards per attempt, and the Bucs gave him a $30 million guarantee on his 2026 salary before his ’25 season. By leading the Bucs to the playoffs in each of his first two seasons, Mayfield took a step back last year. past. Playing through multiple injuries (including MCL and PCL sprains and a sprained AC joint in his shoulder that he injured in Cleveland), Mayfield also led a Bucs offense ravaged by illness. Tampa Bay saw most of its offensive starters miss significant time last season and the team collapsed. The Bucs’ 8-9 finish led to the firing of OC Josh Grizzard, which brought in another new play-caller (former Falcons OC Zac Robinson) for Mayfield, and the warming of Todd Bowles’ seat temperature. Mayfield’s performance this season will play a big role in determining whether the Bucs will have a new HC in 2027. QBR did view Mayfield’s 2025 season somewhat favorably, ranking him 12th (after finishing 18th and 13th in 2023 and 2024), and bristled at the idea that health issues could reduce his value. Mayfield, who initially needed to beat out Kyle Trask to earn the Bucs’ starting job, hasn’t missed a game since joining the team. Tampa Bay shook hands with Mayfield by giving him 2026 guarantees a year in advance and hiring Robinson, the Rams’ quarterbacks coach during Mayfield’s stop in 2022, after the starter pushed for that move. The Bucs also faced the prospect of needing to apply the franchise tag to Mayfield next year; Both sides seemed to agree to that deal, which would have provided approximately $50 million in collateral, but it is now a moot point. While the Bucs have done well to re-sign players just before (or during) free agency, they have agreed to expensive extensions with young talent (Tristan Wirfs, Zyon McCollum, Luke Goedeke) over the past three summers. That points to Mayfield’s training camp deadline not exactly being a true negotiating endpoint, notes SI.com’s Albert Breer. This deal gives Mayfield considerable security after facing another free agency offer, and gives the Bucs a rare opportunity for continuity at QB. The team has enjoyed success at the position, most notably Brady and Super Bowl XXXVII starter Brad Johnson at the position, but both were short-term solutions. Top-10 picks Vinny Testaverde and Trent Dilfer each played six seasons with the franchise before becoming free agents, while Jameis Winston and Doug Williams lasted five. As Mayfield prepares to play for the seventh time in six seasons, he’s no longer betting on himself. The former Heisman winner’s mid-career resurgence gives him a chance to become a different kind of Bucs success story, and the team will be committed to getting the outspoken passer back on track once again.
