Tampa Bay Buccaneers star quarterback Baker Mayfield disappointingly told the NFL world a few weeks ago that he and the Bucs are not even close to being in the ballpark on the kinds of figures he wants in a new contact with the club. Jason Licht and the Buccaneers are hard at work on a blockbuster deal for their franchise quarterback, as the general manager and the entire organization 100 percent believe in the signal caller as the right man to lead the way for the long term.
Even though Mayfield and the Bucs had a horrible second half of the 2025 NFL season, few blame Mayfield for those issues. Instead, the focus has been around making sure he still has a great arsenal of weapons even after the departure of the legendary Mike Evans, a much stronger defense to support him, a more competent offensive coordinator, and, yes, a new contract.
Most pundits and insiders are optimstic that Mayfield and the Buccaneers will hammer out a deal before long, and there seems to be a real race from the Buccaneers side to get a deal done befor the season starts so there are no distractions, as Mayfield is not at all going to negotiate when the games are going on.
Things are getting tough for the Buccaneers
But Tampa Bay Buccaneers legendary cornerback Ronde Barber does not seem to be among those who thinks that a new Baker Mayfield deal will get done before the 2026 NFL regular seaon begins.
Barber has a lot of intel within the organization, and he had this to say on The Ronde Barber Show when asked about the likelihood of a deal being done before the start of the season, via Joe Bucs Fan, "I would find it hard to believe that they do."
He also added, “Find a way to pay him. Make him happy, whatever that number is. It’s not 60, 65 [million per year,] somewhere in the $50 million range. It’s a decent amount of [salary] bump. But I just hope it doesn’t distract this team going into this season, because I think this is a big year for a lot of people in this organization.”
So Ronde Barber wants to see the Buccaneers pay Mayfield, but he does not think that they will be able to give him the deal he wants before the season starts. The most pessimistic part of it, though, is Barber cautioning about this being a distraction if it bleeds into the season, and if it does, hopefully it is not something else that costs the Bucs their concentration and their success yet again. And those "lot of people" Barber is referring to definitely includes head coach Todd Bowles.
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