Shaun King Talks Baker Mayfield Contract Standoff
June 22nd, 2026
Former Bucs QB Shaun King watched a practice years ago with Bucs GM Jason Licht.
One of four quarterbacks to lead the Bucs to the NFC title game, Shaun King is a guy Joe pays attention to because not only are his takes well considered, he’s a lifelong Bucs fan from St. Petersburg.
King hammered the Bucs in December for uninspired play, aka players grabbing a fat Team Glazer check and then playing uninspired ball.
“Everybody on our defense that’s been eligible to get a bag has got a bag, and they be out there like they don’t give a good god damn,” King told The Coach JB Show in December.
“A debacle like that on Thursday Night Football where you’re up 28-14 with everything at stake you just fall on your face? … We made Kyle Pitts look like the reincarnation of prime Tony Gonzalez. Like are you kidding me?”
Ironically, Buccaneers co-owner Joel Glazer thinks the Bucs fought like dogs for Todd Bowles week in and week out. Strange.
Last week, King was back on the The Coach JB Show and weighed in on the Baker Mayfield contract standoff. He was adamant that Mayfield is a “solid” starting quarterback who can make a good argument he deserves a fat bag in a contract extension. Mayfield is scheduled to be a free agent after the 2026 season.
King also said the Bucs can argue Mayfield cost them a playoff berth and needs to prove he’s worthy of top dollar.
“I get both sides of this because I’m objective,” King said. “If you’re Baker, you’re talking about $40 million [salary in 2026]; sh*t, Tua just signed for $50 million. Baker’s way more competent than some of those guys making $50 million. So his agent and him got every right to say, ‘We want an extension at that level.’
“If you’re the Bucs, ‘Baker, you singlehandedly cost us the playoffs last year down the stretch by turning the football over.’ Remember all them games the Bucs lost in the last two minutes because Baker, God damn, was turning the football over?
“So they’re like, ‘We got the ultimate trump card, [the franchise tag]. … … That’s what the Bucs are holding over Baker’s head. ‘We don’t want to give you no big-term extension, push come to shove we’ll put the franchise tag on you not one year, but two.”
Yes, the franchise tag is a major factor in the Mayfield contract negotiations. The Bucs have leverage. However, more and more players seem to have middle-finger leverage.
If Mayfield doesn’t get a contract extension this summer and decides he wants out following the 2026 season, why exactly would the Bucs want to keep him against his will — even if they can? Who would that serve?
Joe expects Mayfield and the Bucs to find common ground soon, even if Rondé Barber does not.
June 22nd, 2026 at 7:35 pm
“If you’re the Bucs, ‘Baker, you singlehandedly cost us the playoffs last year down the stretch by turning the football over.’ Remember all them games the Bucs lost in the last two minutes because Baker, God damn, was turning the football over?”
Pretty much sums it up. If the Bucs wanted Baker he would’ve been extended months ago. There will be no large money extensions this off-season. Too much uncertainty with this roster, HC and GM. Vita and Baker will have to wait until the end of the season.
June 22nd, 2026 at 7:36 pm
Whatever.
June 22nd, 2026 at 7:39 pm
GTFO..It! Lol!
June 22nd, 2026 at 7:40 pm
Bees a crybaby!
June 22nd, 2026 at 7:59 pm
Cross my fingers that we can grab Joe Burrow next year and keep him healthy
June 22nd, 2026 at 8:13 pm
4 years, 52-53 per. Get it done!
June 22nd, 2026 at 8:14 pm
Negotiating on both sides can be misleading. If Baker is a top 10 quarterback per top NFL sports casters, the going rate is north of $50 million.
If the Bucs want to keep Baker, they are going to have pay him the going rate. If not someone else will. Advantage goes to Baker and the Bucs know it.
June 22nd, 2026 at 8:23 pm
El Hefe Bucc … ‘Cross my fingers that we can grab Joe Burrow next year and keep him healthy’.
When this season ends, there’ll be 37 QBs with over 4 years experience who are free agents. Yup, 37 … and Baker’s 1 of them. Interestingly though, there’s only a handful who’d be possibilities to lead the Bucs IMO … Mac Jones, Kyler Murray, Tua, and of course Baker himself.
As far as Joe Burrow goes, he’s under contract through 2028 but with a potential out after the 2027 year.
It’s laughable to think that the Bucs have ‘leverage’ in these negotiations. Yes we could franchise tag him, but in that case our salary CAP would literally blow up. We’d get charged the full franchise tag amount (upwards of $50 mil most likely) PLUS we’d be liable for the remainder of Baker’s current (unpaid) CAP hit … tad over $30 mil.
So you’d be looking at us having to pay over $80 mil of our 2027 salary CAP to just 1 player. And at a time when we’d have quite a few other high-value mouths to feed (Vea, Godwin, Diaby, Robinson, Mauch among many others). That’s called ‘shooting yourself in the foot’.
June 22nd, 2026 at 8:24 pm
Ain’t no other team is paying Baker a franchise quarterback contract. And Jason Licht knows it this team is not Superbowl ready on defense and it makes zero sense to give Baker a franchise quarterback type of contract. And all you people that keep saying 5 year deal has lost their minds. Baker will be 32 next year and he’s never been a elite quarterback in his whole career. With the quarterback class coming out next year you don’t over pay for a quartback like Baker who has never put a team on his back in big games . Let’s see he’s 2-9 in prime time games and he was the reason why we missed the playoffs on last minutes drives to either close out games or to win them . And the bucs can not over pay him especially giving him franchise quarterback years.
June 22nd, 2026 at 8:31 pm
Doug Williams , Shaun King , Brad Johnson , Tom Brady …. Baker Mayfield ?
nah ..
June 22nd, 2026 at 8:43 pm
Just for fun, I researched online the 2025 QB rankings by multiple outlets for Mayfield. I also looked at where these outlets graded Brock Purdy. The following is the results:
2025 NFL QB Rankings
Mayfield Purdy
NFL.com 17 15
Pro football network 24 1
Yahoo Sports 24 4
365 Scores 20 7
Bleacher Report 16 6
Fox Sports 20 6
NFL Spin Zone 17 13
June 22nd, 2026 at 8:44 pm
Look at Shaun King quoting me … Baker singlehandedly kept the Bucs out the of playoffs last year.
June 22nd, 2026 at 8:54 pm
Defense Rules – If Baker doesn’t collapse, yet again, you franchise him while working out a deal.
Based off the cap numbers, if Godwin is a post-June 1st cut (assuming he doesn’t have a big year), that alone gives you $22M. You already have $40M in cap room. Plus the cap will almost certainly go up another $20M. So there’s your worse case scenario covered.
But again, if Baker plays well enough to deserve to be tagged, then you’re going to work out a long term deal anyways. If Baker didn’t play well enough to get tagged, then it almost certainly means Bowles is fired, meaning in back to back years Baker got his OC then his HC fired, and a new HC is very unlikely to want Baker back anyways.
Also, final option if things blow up is to tag Baker, but encourage him to shop around, get whatever deal he wants, then do a trade to at least get something in return.
June 22nd, 2026 at 8:58 pm
It will work out.
ZERO depth at corner. Morrison cannot be counted on at this point. That’s a lot more concerning.
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:01 pm
RM, some agreement on what to do with quality of play in 2026 dictates what to do with 2027 but back to 2025! If Baker’s lack of consistency in the last nine games of that season cost the Bucs the south division, did not his ability in the first 8 games keep them on the right track?
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:06 pm
I noticed that Joe didn’t quote Coach JB on his thoughts about Mayfield.
A very one sided look at that podcast episode. I watch almost every one.
And let’s just say that the Pom Pom squad would not be happy to hear the truth.
Is Baker tough? Yes, few have his moxie. But he lacks the stuff between the ears.
A 40 million dollar arm but a ten cent head. 8-9, how’d we ever win 8?
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:11 pm
Okiejim Says:
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:01 pm
RM, some agreement on what to do with quality of play in 2026 dictates what to do with 2027 but back to 2025! If Baker’s lack of consistency in the last nine games of that season cost the Bucs the south division, did not his ability in the first 8 games keep them on the right track?
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First 6 games.
And out of those first 6 games, he sucked in the Eagles game.
So 5 of the first 6 games.
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:14 pm
Rod Munch … ‘So there’s your worse case scenario covered.’
Yes … covering Baker’s contract. We’ve still got a dozen or so other FA mouths to feed. And without quality talent supporting him, we’ve already seen what we get from Baker. Or do you really want to pay Baker $50 – $60 mil per year so he can lead us to several more 9-8, 10-7 and 8-9 seasons?
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:15 pm
Bee and hefe
I agree
GO BUCS
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:24 pm
One of two quarterbacks to ‘lead’ the Bucs to a LOSS in an NFC title game – when his defense allowed less than 10 points…..
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:28 pm
Mariota is playing for $7M, Mac Jones is playing for $4.2, and Tua is playing for $1.2. Why does $40M look paltry?
Spend a second round pick in the supplemental draft to get Brendan Sorsby and make Baker fight to keep his job this year, and then get the next three years for a second round rookie’s salary.
If Baker does great this year, he can help the Bucs for the next several years by pulling a ton of money out of the market bidding against the Bucs for free agents at other positions while the Bucs pay a QB on a rookie contract.
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:40 pm
Defense Rules Says:
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:14 pm
Rod Munch … ‘So there’s your worse case scenario covered.’
Yes … covering Baker’s contract. We’ve still got a dozen or so other FA mouths to feed.
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What exactly do you think is going to happen? The Bucs are just going to say you’re good enough to eat up $80M but we’re not giving you a new deal? Of course not. But that is your leverage, the fact the Bucs CAN do it. And you can make more cap space making more moves – and if you want to sign other guys, you get creative with deals, like the Bucs did in the old days with Simeon Rice, where they gave him $1M for his first season here. Using guarantees, void years, signing bonuses, etc, you can get done nearly anything you want to get done.
But the thing that would cripple the team for years would be signing Baker to a big deal, then it turns out he was the pumpkin from week 7 on last season – gets everyone fired, and now you’re stuck with an old QB on a huge deal and no high profile coach, or up and coming coach, is going to want to go to a team who is handicapped at QB for the next few seasons.
Baker is under contract, you can cover the worst case scenario, so play it out and see what happens. Rewarding a QB with a new huge team record deal after he just cost you the playoffs, and got his entire offensive staff fired, I don’t see why you’d want to do that when you don’t have to.
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:46 pm
Munch, continuing his ongoing Baker hate – “But again, if Baker plays well enough to deserve to be tagged, then you’re going to work out a long term deal anyways.”
No you’re not if he’s pissed off and decides to smell the roses somewhere else like Evans just did. There are definitely teams that will easily outspend the Bucs for Baker. You admit the Bucs are over the barrel, trying to re-sign more players than they are going to have the cash for next season.
Easily the second best QB the Bucs have ever had and a far cry better than what the majority of teams in the NFL have right now for their starting QB, you have, once again, dismissed Baker as the Bucs future QB if he even has a mediocre season for an unnamed QB. If it’s a rookie, you must be pulling for the Bucs to have a truly terrible record because you sure as heck aren’t going to get anything approaching Baker quality football from somebody in the middle to late rounds.
As usual, you are replacing Baker with a ghost named “Hope”. The Bucs have a very long track record of that ghost haunting the team, replacing one with another.
Oh, and Bowles has earned a dismissal from the Bucs as head coach already. Not for anything having to do with Baker; though, his ineptitude as a defensive guru has been apparent for years. He would have already been fired as the defensive coordinator by the head coach if he wasn’t the head coach, too.
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:47 pm
toopanca Says:
Spend a second round pick in the supplemental draft to get Brendan Sorsby and make Baker fight to keep his job this year, and then get the next three years for a second round rookie’s salary.
If Baker does great this year, he can help the Bucs for the next several years by pulling a ton of money out of the market bidding against the Bucs for free agents at other positions while the Bucs pay a QB on a rookie contract.
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This is the Troy Aikman – Steve Walsh move, and I’m 100% in on the Bucs trying to pull it off.
If Baker has fully reverted to being a pumpkin, well you got your new QB in the waiting already here, and with a year in the NFL under his belt.
If Baker returns to form, has a great season, well you got a lottery ticket in Sorsby who still has a ton of trade value.
Steve Walsh cost the Cowboys a 1st rounder, but after Aikman won the QB battle, the next year they traded Walsh to the Saints for a 1st, 2nd and a 3rd.
Now I’m not saying anyone is as stupid as the Saints, but it’s very reasonable to think Sorsby, at worst, would get you a 3rd rounder in return, and I think it’s very likely he’d hold his value and still get you a 2nd if you did trade him away.
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:49 pm
ScottyMack Says:
June 22nd, 2026 at 9:46 pm
Munch, continuing his ongoing Baker hate – “But again, if Baker plays well enough to deserve to be tagged, then you’re going to work out a long term deal anyways.”
No you’re not if he’s pissed off and decides to smell the roses somewhere else like Evans just did.
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One big flaw in your take… Evans wasn’t under contract.
WOW, what a dipstick.