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For an article posted on Monday, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated predicted that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and quarterback Baker Mayfield will sign a contract extension before Week 1 of the 2026 regular season gets underway.
Mayfield remains in the final year of his existing deal. During a Tuesday appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show," ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter shared a new update on the Mayfield-Buccaneers situation.
Buccaneers, Baker Mayfield nearing a "compromise" in contract talks?
"Both sides want to make it happen," Schefter said, per the JoeBucsFan website. "It shouldn’t be a difficult deal to do. Think about $50M a year. That’s my projection for where a potential Baker Mayfield deal could come in. Maybe not as much as he wants, maybe more than the Bucs would be wanting to pay. But there’s a compromise in there for both sides."
As has been the case, it is still unclear how many years and how much guaranteed money could be attached to Mayfield's next extension. The Buccaneers could remind him during negotiations that they could retain his rights for 2027 via the franchise tag, if necessary.
Breer pointed out that "the franchise tag for quarterbacks projects to just over $50M for 2027, meaning two tags would be just north of $110M total." Thus, Mayfield's camp may ask for an average salary of $55M per year for a new deal.
Are the Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield likely to work something out before Week 1?
"Baker Mayfield said that he wants the deal done by the time training camp starts, or he’s essentially tabling negotiations as he enters the last year of his contract," Schefter explained, according to Ben Strauss of ClutchPoints. "But I guess what I would say to that is...Tampa’s history has been to do deals during camp, not at the start of camp. I think it’s going to be easy for the Buccaneers and Baker to say, at that point in time, 'We’ve started talking, we’re gonna continue talking and we’re going to continue to try to get this done.' I think that they figure out a way to get it done, because both sides want to make it happen."
Veteran Tampa Bay players are due to report for training camp on July 28. Schefter's update suggests that isn't necessarily a hard deadline for contract discussions involving Mayfield and the Buccaneers. That said, one would think Mayfield would like to put pen to paper on an agreement before Tampa Bay's Week 1 game at the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 13.
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