Baker Mayfield feels 'disrespected' by lack of contract extension ahead of training camp

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield set a deadline for contract extension talks with the team, and that deadline -- the start of training camp -- has now come and gone without Mayfield getting a new contract. Speaking at camp on Thursday, Mayfield emphasized that his contract talks are now over and expressed his disappointment with the lack of a deal and the quality of the offers he received from the team. 

"Disappointing in that regard to feel disrespected a little bit," Mayfield said, per Pewter Report. "That's really the disappointing part of it is feeling undervalued after thinking you've earned it. This is not a 'poor me' thing. There's a lot other people that have it way worse off, but I can sit here and look at other quarterbacks and peers and evaluate myself based on that and put myself in certain categories that I deserve to be compensated for that. I think I'm a franchise quarterback, I've been told I'm a franchise quarterback. It's been said publicly from ownership down here and so to not have a deal done is very disappointing."

Why wasn't there a deal?

There appears to have been a significant gap between the valuation Mayfield expected and what the Bucs were willing to offer, both in the length of the contract extension and the dollar amount. Mayfield told ESPN that the Bucs offered him a two-year deal that was "pretty far" from putting him in the $50 million-per-year club, which is where he wanted to be. 

Most "franchise quarterbacks" sign deals lasting at least four years. The shorter-term contracts are typically meant for bridge quarterbacks or those who still need to prove themselves. Surefire starter types have also generally signed for at least $40 million and most times $50 million per year, while those that are bridge starters or prove-it guys sign in the $20 million to $35 million range, which is where Mayfield resides right now. 

There are currently 12 quarterbacks making at least $50 million per year: Patrick Mahomes, Dak Prescott, Joe Burrow, Matthew Stafford, Trevor Lawrence, Jordan Love, Josh Allen, Brock Purdy, Jared Goff, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts. All of them, except for Stafford, are on contracts that were at least 4 years long when they were signed. 

If Mayfield feels that he's a franchise quarterback and the Bucs weren't prepared to pay him like one, it's not surprising that a deal wasn't reached before his self-imposed deadline of the start of training camp.

What is Mayfield worth?

This is a tougher question. 

Mayfield has been in Tampa for three seasons, completing 66.3% of his passes at an average of 7.3 yards per attempt, with 95 touchdowns and 37 interceptions. He's gone 27-24 as a starter and made the Pro Bowl in two of his three seasons. 

His 2024 campaign, though, looks like a bit of an outlier compared with the other two. Under former offensive coordinator Liam Coen (now head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars), Mayfield completed 71.4% of his passes at an average of 7.9 yards per attempt, with 41 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. In his other two seasons, he has completed 64.3% and 63.2% of his passes, averaged 7.1 and 6.8 yards per attempt, and combined for 54 touchdowns and 21 picks.

In other words, Mayfield has had one season where he looked like a surefire franchise quarterback, sandwiched by two seasons where he looked more like a bridge starter type who is worth a sizable contract but not necessarily one that pays him at or near the top of the market. He's also 31 years old and coming off a season marred by injuries, and he's on a team that doesn't look like a near-term contender, which makes a deal at the level he's pursuing pretty unlikely.

What happens next?

Taking Mayfield at his word, contract talks with the Bucs are over, and he will play out the season on the final season of his three-year, $100 million contract. That deal pays him a base salary of just $10 million for the 2026 season, but he has a roster bonus of $17 million and another bonus worth $1 million, while his prorated signing bonus counts on the books for $11.975 million, so he carries a cap hit of $39.975 million for this year.

Mayfield will be counting on a better season under new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson, under whom he played during his short stint with the Rams back in 2022. (Robinson was the passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Sean McVay and offensive coordinator Liam Coen.) Trying to recapture some of the magic that Mayfield had during the 2024 campaign makes sense, though it remains to be seen whether the Bucs can do so.

If Mayfield has a season like that, he's going to hit that magic $50 million per year mark, whether he gets such a deal from the Bucs or some other team. However, if he still can't come to an agreement with Tampa after a season like that, it would be shocking if the Bucs didn't use the franchise tag to retain him.

If Mayfield has another season like last year or the one he had in 2023, though, things could get more interesting. The Bucs could try to bring him back on another contract like the one they're offering now, or move on and look for a long-term answer in the draft or on the free-agent market. Mayfield would then potentially be looking at a deal like the one Sam Darnold signed with the Seahawks last offseason, or perhaps like the one Daniel Jones got with the Colts this year.