Baker Mayfield turned out to be a late bloomer as a quarterback, and that has caused problems for everyone. Fans and analysts don’t know where to rank him, fantasy football players don’t know when to draft him, and worst of all, his own team is unsure of how much they should pay him.
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The back-to-back Pro Bowler has guided the Tampa Bay Buccaneers into the playoffs in he past two seasons, and he even managed to pick up the second playoff win of his career against the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023. But still, Mayfield is being forced to settle for an average salary of $33 million.
That means, despite having a better playoff record than the likes of Dak Prescott and Justin Herbert, Mayfield is just the 19th-highest-paid quarterback in the NFL today.
Prescott’s contract, in particular, has become a point of comparison for almost every other signal caller in the league today. Any time talks of salaries come up, the Dallas Cowboys’ premier passer is mentioned. That has got to do with the fact that Prescott was able to become one of the league’s richest players despite having a career playoff record of 2-5.
In terms of salaries, Mayfield is more comparable to Geno Smith and Sam Darnold, even though he’s produced more passing yards than any of them throughout the past two years. Of course, there’s also the possibility of a payday being just around the corner for him, especially if he’s able to secure a third consecutive NFC South title.
Given the current state of that division, which many consider to be the weakest in the NFL, that’s certainly possible.
The former Oklahoma Sooner currently averages 568 pass attempts, 4,272 passing yards, 34.5 touchdowns, and a 67.9% completion percentage since he arrived in Tampa. Assuming that the Buccaneers want to keep their stranglehold on the south, then a contract extension seems inevitable.
At the very least, Mayfield’s next contract should include no less than $40 million per year, but $50 million is well within the range of possible outcomes. The amount may ultimately come down to the Buccaneers’ visions of the future.
But so long as they are collecting divisional titles, it’s safe to assume that the Buccaneers will want Mayfield to be a part of that future. In which case, they’ll have to break out the checkbook. Quarterbacks aren’t cheap, and neither is this level of production. The 2025 regular season will likely go a long way in those future negotiations between Mayfield and the Bucs organization.
Much of his recent success has been attributed to the schemes of Liam Coen, who has now joined the Jacksonville Jaguars. Should Mayfield manage to prove that he’s capable of producing despite the change in coordinators, then it’s incredibly likely that a deal will get done at some point in the next offseason.
Until then, Mayfield will have to make the most of what remains of Mike Evans and his flashy new toy, Emeka Egbuka.
