Although Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting quarterback Baker Mayfield is not coming off the best season of his NFL career, that narrative could have been way, way different if it were not for injuries.
Not only did Mayfield himself suffer another brutal injury while he was trying to carry the Bucs offense, but most of his best players were down with significant injuries in the second half of the season. Because if it were just up to the first half of the season before the injuries set in, Mayfield would have been a big time MVP candidate and would have been coming off his best ever NFL season.
Mayfield is now heading into a contract year for the Buccaneers, and as if he did not already have enough to play for following a brutal 2025 NFL regular season, his usual chip on the shoulder mentality, and then Mike Evans snubbing him for Brock Purdy (and also Mike McDaniel for Justin Herbert), the contract is yet another powerful motivator for the punky quarterback.
The Buccaneers and Mayfield are at the bargaining table for a new contract, and although Jason Licht and the Bucs are sending competitive offers, Mayfield, by his own public commentary, and the Bucs are nowhere close in the initial stages of this all important contract renewal.
Baker Mayfield is in line to make a ton of money
Speaking on Sirius XM NFL Radio, former NFL executive and long time analyst Pat Kirwan spoke a little bit about what kind of contract Tampa Bay Buccaneers and NFL fans can expect to see Baker Mayfield getting, particularly in terms of annual compensation.
Kirwan said that around 55 million dollars per season could be the fair value for Mayfield when comparing him to similar quarterbacks. He said, via Joe Bucs Fan, “So if I’m Baker and his agent, I’m thinking, ‘Oh, you gotta get me into the fifties.’ I’m not asking to go to the sixties, I get it. … Daniel Jones’ two-year deal is not gonna happen. … He made a comment [Friday] that he loves living in Tampa, wants to raise his family there. That’s just a secret message of ‘I want a long-term deal.’ That’s what that means. So I think if I’m looking at this, I’m probably, if I’m the club, I don’t want to do it, but I probably have to go to Jordan Love’s $55 million a year or Jared Goff’s $53 million. So split it and call it 54… You look at the deals and I look at contracts all the time, who do I work off [for Mayfield]? I think I’m gonna work off Jordan Love’s deal. Has Jordan Love done more than him? Jordan Love has never won more than nine games [in a season], right? I keep saying it. It is what it is.”
The Buccaneers have to be looking at what Pat Kirwan is bringing up with some concern, because, as Kirwan points out, Green Bay Packers starting quarterback Jordan Love makes $55 million per season and any Buccaneers fan will readily say that he is not even close to the quarterback Mayfield is.
His best career seasons in terms of winning are disappointing ones for Mayfield, and he has half the natural talent Mayfield does. So when Mayfield talks about he and the Bucs not even being close, there should be real trepidation that Love, unlike what Kirwan is saying, isn't even the value the Bucs quarterback wants to work off of; he may want something upwards of 60 million dollars when commparing the quarterback market.
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