Baker Mayfield projected to sign $120M contract with Tampa Bay Bucs, Spotrac says
As the beginning of NFL free agency looming less than two weeks away, quarterback Baker Mayfield is expected to land a lucrative, long-term contract after an impressive 2023 season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Mayfield, 28, threw 28 touchdown passes and 4,044 yards – both career-highs – for the Bucs this season after signing a one-year, $4 million contract with the team in March 2023. His on-field success for the Bucs earned him $2.85 million in performance-related incentives, as well.
Mayfield’s career-highs with the Bucs in 2023 came one season after he threw for a career-low 10 touchdowns and 2,163 passing yards while bouncing between the Los Angeles Rams and Carolina Panthers during the 2022 NFL season, after the Browns traded him to Carolina in July 2022.
After a bounce-back 2023 season with the Bucs, in which he was nominated for AP Comeback Player of the Year (Browns quarterback Joe Flacco won the award), the former Heisman Trophy winner is expected to cash in during free agency.
“Baker’s comeback has been one of the more enjoyable storylines of the past few seasons, culminating with a playoff win this past season with the Bucs. Tampa Bay is trying to keep Baker off of the open market at the final hour,” Spotrac managing editor Michael Ginnitti writes. “We’ve projected a contract that essentially plays like a cap-adjusted version of Geno Smith’s deal in Seattle, while using a double bonus structure to keep cap hits insanely low over the next two seasons.”
To date, Mayfield has totaled more than $55 million in career earnings through his first six NFL seasons with the Browns, Panthers, Rams and Bucs. However, Mayfield and his wife, Emily, filed a petition in September 2023 against his family’s investment firms to determine what happened to an unaccounted for $12 million the couple invested with those companies.
Mayfield is currently the third-best free agent quarterback and 31st-ranked player available this offseason, just behind former Browns quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who is No. 2 among QBs and No. 30 overall, according to NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal.
