There are issues for the Buccaneers and quarterback Baker Mayfield to work out on the business side, but there’s been no issues on the football side of things.
That was the message from head coach Todd Bowles on Thursday. Mayfield is heading into the final year of his contract with the Buccaneers and talks about an extension have been at a standstill, which led Mayfield to say that he won’t continue talks if a new deal isn’t in place at the start of training camp.
Bowles said there’s “absolutely no question” he wants Mayfield as the team’s long-term quarterback and that the off-field situation hasn’t impacted anything on the field.
“Baker’s a true pro,” Bowles said, via Jenna Laine of ESPN.com. “I don’t think there’s any disappointment whatsoever. I mean, he loves it here. We love him here. The contract stuff takes care of itself, whether it’s the quarterback or any other position that comes up — those things get worked out over time. You just concentrate on what we got to concentrate on, on the field, and he’s been great right there.”
There’s no guarantee that Mayfield will land the contract he wants with the Buccaneers, but making a compelling case for his value with his play isn’t going to do anything to hurt his cause.
The Buccaneers didn’t practice on Tuesday, by choice. They didn’t practice on Wednesday, not by choice.
“We gave them off Tuesday; Tuesday was their day off,” coach Todd Bowles said Thursday, per Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com. “Wednesday was by the league, because at the first practice we had too many guys on the ground, so they took a practice from us. So Wednesday was by their doing, Tuesday was already set in motion by our doing. And they cleaned it up after that. We understand. We aren’t trying to get anybody hurt. That was the basis of it.”
Bowles said “about three or four plays” created the issue.
“We’re trying to practice safety as well,” Bowles said. “We’ve got a lot of new guys trying to learn how to practice, but we cleaned that up and kind of took care of it.”
It’s not easy to get the players to dial it back — especially the ones that are trying to move from the 90-man roster to the final 53-man roster. Still, the team is responsible to keep things from going too far.
Even with periodic glitches, it’s not as bad as it used to be. Twenty years ago, contact was rampant in offseason workouts. To the point where some offensive linemen wanted to wear pads, since their shoulders were getting banged around by helmets.
Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles said last month that the team expects running back Bucky Irving to return to action “sometime in the summer or fall” and things appear to be moving a little more quickly.
Multiple reporters at Thursday’s OTA practice session shared videos of Irving in uniform working in drills with the rest of the team. It is the first time that has happened at a practice open to the media since Irving had shoulder surgery early in the offseason.
Irving missed seven games last season and ended the year with 173 carries for 588 yards and a touchdown. He also caught 30 passes for 277 yards and three touchdowns.
The Bucs will wrap up their offseason program with next week’s minicamp.
The Buccaneers signed kicker B.T. Potter on Monday, the team announced.
In a corresponding move, the Bucs waived punter Aidan Laros.
Potter entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent, signing with the Steelers. He spent the 2023 preseason.
That is Potter’s only NFL experience.
He played collegiately at Clemson University (2018-22), appearing in 59 career games and converting 73-of-97 field-goal attempts (75.3 percent) and 234-of-235 extra-point attempts (99.6 percent) for a total of 453 kicking points. A two-time second-team All-ACC selection, Potter was also a Lou Groza Award semifinalist in 2022 after going 20-of-26 on field goals and 49-of-49 on extra points.
The Bucs signed Laros, an undrafted rookie, on May 12. He finished his career with two seasons at Kentucky after transferring from Charlotte, where he played two seasons. Laros began his career with one season at the University of Tennessee-Martin.
On Friday, Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield made it clear that talks on a new contract are not going well. It remains to be seen whether that will change.
For now, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reports that Mayfield’s representatives have not responded to the team’s opening offer.
Coupled with Mayfield’s comments, this means that Mayfield and company view the starting point as reflecting a bottom line that won’t be acceptable. So why bother to respond?
Here’s the problem. If Mayfield has a number in mind (and he clearly does), the initial position in response to the first offer will need to be sufficiently higher than the opener in order to get to the preferred ending spot via negotiation. So if Mayfield comes in with a number aimed at doing that and it leaks, Mayfield loses the P.R. war.
Mayfield’s current deal averages $33.3 million per year. He’s due $27 million in cash in 2026, with $5 million in available incentives. (There’s another $13 million that he’ll be paid in 2026, but that was earned in 2025. It pushes his 2026 base compensation to $40 million.)
The market currently tops out at $60 million per year for Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (if we ignore the new-money average as to Bills quarterback Josh Allen’s latest contract). Where should Mayfield land between $33.3 million and $60 million?
On one hand, too many teams pay too much for quarterbacks. On the other hand, the market is the market.
It’s not Mayfield’s fault that Packers quarterback Jordan Love makes $55 million per year, or that Lions quarterback Jared Goff makes $53 million. (Or, for that matter, that the Dolphins paid quarterback Tua Tagovailoa $53.1 million per year.)
Where should Mayfield land? Apparently, the team’s opening offer points to a final offer that won’t be good enough.
The question becomes whether the Buccaneers would use the franchise tag on Mayfield in 2027. After he finished a one-year deal in 2023, the Bucs didn’t tag Mayfield. Other teams that were looking for a quarterback didn’t make a move. (Some should have.)
Mayfield is surely willing to bet on himself. And, for as much as the Buccaneers claim to love Mayfield, they need to back that up with something that better reflects his value. Or they’d better have a good plan for life without Baker in 2027.
