When Baker Mayfield joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers around this time last year, money was barely a factor. He took on a team-friendly one-year deal with the hopes of a resurgent campaign with the Bucs.
To say that he achieved this objective would be an understatement, and the fact that he got his first-ever career Pro Bowl nod is a testament to this fact.
Mayfield will now be entering free agency and unsurprisingly, he’s now seeking more money than the $4 million deal he got from Tampa Bay for 2023-24.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Will Need to Shell Out the Big Bucks for Baker Mayfield
According to JoeBucsFan.com, Mayfield wants the bag. The 28-year-old knows that he’s done enough to warrant a big-money deal, and as it appears, this is exactly what he will be going for in free agency.
“ESPN NFL super insider Jeff Darlington, the pride of Seminole High School, said on TV recently that he’s talked to Mayfield and ‘he wants to get market value.'”
Depending on where you’re sitting, “market value” could be a subjective amount. JoeBucsFan.com stipulates, however, that Tampa Bay might need to shell out upwards of $30 million to retain the services of the former Rookie of the Year:
Joe wonders if the Bucs would dare to play a high-stakes game of chicken with Mayfield and risk losing him. Mayfield has bet on himself before, and it’s not unrealistic to think he might force the Bucs into slapping him with the franchise tag, a roughly $35 million deal for 2024.
That’s quite the pay hike for Mayfield.
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