There are a number of questions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers need to drum up answers to rather quickly, with what happens to Baker Mayfield ranking near the top.
Despite needing new deals for both Antoine Winfield Jr and Mike Evans, it feels like everything hinges on re-signing Baker and making sure the team knows who its quarterback will be. It took the Bucs until March of last year to settle on Baker the first time, but all signs point to the front office figuring things out a little sooner this time around.
Baker and the Bucs are expected to begin contract negotiations while at the NFL Combine this week, and already folks are weighing in on how those talks might go.
Ex-Bucs GM predicts what Baker Mayfield's contract might look like
Former Buccaneers general manager Mark Dominik took a look at the upcoming contract that Baker Mayfield might get and compared it to what the New York Giants did with Daniel Jones last offseason.
“I think Tampa wants to do a three or four-year deal and they want to keep it where that Daniel Jones number is,” Dominik said.
For the record, Jones signed a $160 million contract with the Giants last offseason and made about $41 million in the first year of that deal (including a $9 million signing bonus). Hopefully, that's where any comparison to Danny Dimes ends, because there's not a single Giants fan who has anything nice to say about how that contract has aged.
The takeaway is the price, which is what we're all trying to figure out when it comes to Baker. Nothing firm has been tossed out, as the range has been anywhere from $75 million to $100 million depending on who you listen to.
NFL insider Jonathan Jones had what feels like the most comfortable estimate, projecting Baker's potential contract at three years, $75 million which is half of what Dominik suggested. Where things get dicey is that $160 million total value, even if something in the neighborhood of $35 million AAV makes sense.
The franchise tag for a quarterback this season is set at $38.3 million, which the Bucs are reportedly fine with spending on Mayfield but not for a single season. Mutual interest between the two sides, and Tampa Bay's insistence on not lowballing Baker, might bring that price down closer to $35 million which is a palatable $105 million on a three-year deal.
It feels like a matter of when, not if the Bucs figure out a way to bring back Baker with the matter of how much it ends up costing being the mystery we're all waiting to hear solved.