Baker Mayfield got the contract he wanted, after all. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their quarterback are in agreement on a new three-year extension, the team announced on Tuesday, which ends one of the offseason's most high-profile contract standoffs.
The deal is worth $165 million, which makes its average annual value a whopping $55 million. That salary places Mayfield in a tie for the third-highest-paid quarterback in the league, matching him with Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Jordan Love, Trevor Lawrence and Matthew Stafford. Mayfield becomes the highest-paid player in franchise history.
The timing of the agreement is entirely surprising given that Mayfield and the Buccaneers had seemingly shut down their negotiations at the start of training camp. Mayfield made it clear that he wanted to have a deal in place by the time he reported to practice and said that he would not resume talks until after the 2026 season. The parties seemingly continued to work toward a deal in the background, though, as they came to terms just in time for the start of the campaign.
Mayfield was outwardly upset with the Buccaneers over their unwillingness to meet his demands by his deadline.
"Disappointing in that regard to feel disrespected a little bit," Mayfield said at the start of camp. "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 of 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. 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."
The sides ultimately found common ground, bringing to an end a tumultuous summer for the Tampa Bay front office. Not only did the Buccaneers ultimately bend to give Mayfield his raise and three years of security, but they also granted star defensive tackle Vita Vea the raise and extension he sought. Vea requested a trade and conducted a hold-in during camp until he landed a one-year, $30 million extension that keeps him in town through 2027.
Why it took so long to reach a deal
On June 5, Mayfield said that the Buccaneers "are not anywhere close to what we were thinking" as far as contract figures were concerned. That changed over the course of the summer, but it was a slow process. By the start of training camp, the team was still not in Mayfield's ballpark.
The veteran quarterback said to ESPN in July that Tampa Bay offered him an extension of just two years, which was "probably the most disappointing part" considering he wanted long-term stability. This is a signal-caller, after all, who is on his fourth team and who started for all four of those teams in a short span from 2021 to 2023.
ESPN reported that in the final days leading up to training camp, the Buccaneers made an offer of two years worth slightly more than $100 million. While that would have placed Mayfield in the "$50 million per year" club -- which he said was a requirement for him to sign a new deal -- it lacked the third year he sought. It also did not have the proper guarantees, in Mayfield's eyes.
Importance of the 11th-hour agreement
Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht has a pattern. Once Week 1 arrives, players should not expect to ink a new deal until after the campaign is done. In-season negotiations are rare for Tampa Bay.
The problem in this case for the Buccaneers is that Mayfield would have likely commanded interest from other teams once he reached free agency at the end of the year. And given that he was not shy about sharing his resentment toward the front office, it would not have surprised anyone if he walked away at the end of his contract.
Tampa Bay could have used the franchise tag to retain Mayfield in 2027, but the relationship was already tenuous, and there is no telling how the former No. 1 overall pick would have responded to being locked in on a one-year deal.
NFL's highest-paid quarterbacks
Mayfield's value is tricky to assess. His 2024 season was a resounding success -- one that placed him in the MVP conversation with his 71.4% completion rate and 41 touchdowns. The other two years he has spent in Tampa Bay, however, have not been quite as fruitful. And after a disappointing second half of the 2025 campaign, both Mayfield and the team as a whole enter 2026 with an uncertain trajectory.
Still, the team was ultimately willing to commit to Mayfield as a franchise quarterback. His new salary puts him in the same tier as some of the league's biggest stars.
Here are the 10 highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL, per Over The Cap.
