Jeremy Fowler: No Progress Between Bucs, Baker Mayfield But Neither Side Is Sweating
June 30th, 2026
Update.
So on Saturday, in what Joe thought was a positive tone on a contract extension, Baker Mayfield simply said he and the Bucs just need to find the middle ground.
Mayfield didn’t seem worried. And per Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, that’s because neither side is worried.
Fowler said yesterday on ESPN while chatting with Laura Rutledge that he checked yesterday with his Bucs and Mayfield sources and neither Mayfield’s camp nor Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht is sweating over it.
“I’m told that the Bucs and Baker Mayfield have not made any progress on a new deal since he made those original comments in [June] that he wants a deal,” Fowler said. “And he needs it before training camp.
“But neither side is worried, I’m told, because they got five weeks here to hash this out. I expect some movement closer to mid- to late-July when players are about to report.
“Mayfield wants to report. He wants no issues here.”
Fowler believes Mayfield’s floor on a new contract is $50 million a year, which to Joe seems very fair. Dixie Chicks quarterback Tua Tagovailoa signed a $53 million a year deal with the Dolphins before he was eventually released. Joe doesn’t think Tua can hold Mayfield’s jock.
“This seems pretty clear cut,” Fowler said. “There are 11 different players in the NFL that make over $50 million per year. Mayfield is not in that club.
“He feels like he’s probably outplayed a few of those guys.”
Joe agrees.
June 30th, 2026 at 8:34 am
Maybe less than 50, but extra year and guaranteed. Tua now plays for the minimum so I don’t think we can use that as a base. Tough position Jason got himself into.
June 30th, 2026 at 8:37 am
Just about time for the same tired, rehashed comments from the literati of jbf. Pro Baker guys expressing his virtues, typically overwhelmed by the haters who will use the same arguments they’ve used for months now to push back against the narrative formed in the post. Rinse, repeat. Until he signed, we’ll get the daily post about his contract followed by the daily comments as described. Yawn.
June 30th, 2026 at 8:45 am
Tua is making 54 million base salary this season. The Falcons are paying the minimum salary and the Dolphins are paying the rest of it because it’s guaranteed salary.
June 30th, 2026 at 8:49 am
I read some comments that Baker made over the weekend, and he has completely changed his overall tone… He’s saying all the right things, NOW. And, I really don’t care WHAT other teams do. The Dolphins made a HORRIBLY STUPID move when the handed Tua, THAT EXTENSION. I said it, THEN. Literally, NO ONE ELSE was coming anywhere even CLOSE to that! Again, I could not care ANY LESS ABOUT what other teams do. And, neither should the BUCS. Hold the line. There’s a DEAL already, on the table.
June 30th, 2026 at 8:52 am
I think Joe’s poll showed that 70% wanted baker to be re signed to a new contract. I don’t remember exactly the way the poll question was worded. Out of the 30 percent that voted no, I’m guessing that maybe 2-5% are flat out irrational Baker haters and the other 25% just preferred that he play out his current contract.
June 30th, 2026 at 8:55 am
“Tough position Jason got himself into.”
NO. Baker did it all to HIMSELF. And, HELL NO… They’ll give him a few more MIL, before they give an EXTRA YEAR. 32-year old QB’s (especially, after Baker’s body of work), do NOT receive 4 or 5 year deals.
June 30th, 2026 at 9:14 am
@ Oscar – Yeah, and 90% of that 70, were all just EMPTY “casual” fans. The other 10% were just Baker Bois, living inside of a very weird “adult” Baker-Fantasyland, where they have professed their everlasting, undying love for him. They are NOT true “Bucs Fans.” They are BAKER FANS. And, I would hope FAMILY of (or personally close to) Baker. Cause, otherwise it is just waaayyy too WEIRD. I know some of it is an insecure ego thing, wanting to prove a point. They don’t care about the “Bucs Franchise” FIRST. Only Good-Ole BAKEY BAKE.
June 30th, 2026 at 9:16 am
Steven007
He’s already signed. Also Baker fans use the same tired arguments and are overwhelmed with facts and data that convincingly quash those arguments. Baker fans usually don’t offer counterpoints, they just call people haters and other names.
The fact remains that if the Bucs really wanted Baker they would’ve overpaid for him the same way they wanted to overpay for Evans but he said no. If Baker was truly valuable another team would’ve traded for him. The league is showing him his worth, which is very little.
June 30th, 2026 at 9:16 am
I think the Bucs are thinking about what happens if Bowles tanks. If the season explodes what then?
June 30th, 2026 at 9:17 am
Tua’s contract included 167 million in guarantees.
June 30th, 2026 at 9:17 am
Dolphins were really stupid on that one!
June 30th, 2026 at 9:24 am
Pay that man his money
Teddy KGB
June 30th, 2026 at 9:30 am
Question: if the Bus sign him for 4 years with 2 guaranteed, and they cut bait AFTER the 2 does it still affect the cap situation later on?
June 30th, 2026 at 9:32 am
The Tua contract always gets brought up as a comparison which is ridiculous.
It’s a great example of the contract not working out whatsoever.
An example of a franchise that was incredibly dumb for doing it suffering major consequences.
June 30th, 2026 at 9:34 am
“Dixie Chicks quarterback Tua Tagovailoa signed a $53 million a year deal with the Dolphins before he was eventually released.”
Simmer down there sparky. Listen to what you just expressed. Pure madness.
We could end up in the exact same situation as the Dolphins.
Do you want to pay a guy $50+ million to not be your QB1????
He’s not worth big money!!!! One playoff win and a 1-9 prime time record.
Hard pass. We can do that with a rookie QB. Providing Bowles and Licht are gone.
June 30th, 2026 at 9:34 am
I seriously believe the Tua deal, was very similar to the Godwin deal. I believe that BOTH FO’s felt really BAD for them, and allowed THEIR EMOTIONS and ‘personal’ relationships to leak into the negotiations. In Godwin’s case… He (‘supposedly’) had an offer by the Patriots (though I’d have to see-it to believe it, when it actually came down to it). Both, of those guys were going to just glide their way towards MAX MAX-level ‘extensions’ given THEIR PLAY, before the injuries. It’s a big reason for why I CANNOT STAND this whole Bucs good-ole “buddy-buddy” system, being played by LICKT. I mean, making those comments about envisioning himself and Baker hashing everything out at some “DIVE BAR” somewhere… I Don’t Like-It. NO, I do not think it is “cute” or “cool.” Not in the very LEAST. I would MUCH prefer MY GM as presenting himself, in a MUCH MORE ‘professional’ and SERIOUS manner, period… But, especially towards ‘employee/player’ relationships. He goals should not be to make FRIENDS.
June 30th, 2026 at 9:43 am
“LynchMob50 Says:
June 30th, 2026 at 9:34 am
“Dixie Chicks quarterback Tua Tagovailoa signed a $53 million a year deal with the Dolphins before he was eventually released.”
Simmer down there sparky. Listen to what you just expressed. Pure madness.
We could end up in the exact same situation as the Dolphins.
Do you want to pay a guy $50+ million to not be your QB1????
He’s not worth big money!!!! One playoff win and a 1-9 prime time record.
Hard pass. We can do that with a rookie QB. Providing Bowles and Licht are gone.”
TWO playoff wins, 3 losses, and the highest post-season passer rating of ANY active QB.
June 30th, 2026 at 9:44 am
@ Beeej – of course, it does. It’s the one thing that is soooo RISKY with these NFL contracts. And, I absolutely HATE IT. One reason I “hate it” is because I don’t fully understand it, and I have absolutely ZERO motivation whatsoever, to even BEGIN trying to. But, YES… It will affect our DEAD CAP drastically, moving forward, in one way, or another.
June 30th, 2026 at 9:50 am
I would much rather over pay and retain the flexibility to get out of the deal after a few seasons than under pay and add more guarantees to the length of the agreement.
June 30th, 2026 at 9:57 am
Thanks Melvin, that’s what I’d have guessed. Might be interesting to just start doing a series of 1 year deals, that would follow Baker’s mindset of always betting on himself
June 30th, 2026 at 9:58 am
the Tua contract was a bad deal…
baker is 28-26 as a starter with the bucs
tua was 78-76 as a starter for the phins
baker has 1 playoff win 3 years ago
tua made the playoffs once and took an L
let that sink in….phins made a horrible deal and clowns want the bucs to follow that path….
baker aint worth 50mil…bucs would be foolish to extend him after choking in DEC….you dont reward a QB with a new contract after missing the playoffs
GO BUCS!!!!
June 30th, 2026 at 9:59 am
any contract BUCS offer should allow them to release baker after ’27
GO BUCS!!!!
June 30th, 2026 at 10:03 am
@ 813bucboi – I’m not looking it up, BUT you are waaaayyy OFF on your Tua career W/L record with the Dolphins. Absolutely, NO-WAY POSSIBLE. He hasn’t even been in the league for long enough, AND he’s missed MAJOR time, due to injury. So, I don’t know WHERE you got all of THAT from!?
June 30th, 2026 at 10:22 am
Mel Jr. and 813 … Where’s all this anger coming from? No matter what you feel or say on this site, Baker’s going to get a new contract because he deserves it. And they’ll sign him before the start of Training Camp because they know he’s a good QB. Before you string him up, let’s see what he does with a smarter OC and a tougher defense.
54M x 4.
June 30th, 2026 at 10:26 am
Pay Baker already. 54M x 4.
June 30th, 2026 at 10:27 am
Oh, poor Beeej, letting their low IQ get the best of them yet again.
I was referring to Bakers time as a Buc, not his career. Pay attention better.
And your argument oh him being 2-3 doesn’t exactly put icing on a cake.
More like whipped cream on a pile of sh@t!
Highest postseason passer rating of any active QB = Zero conference title games and SBs.
This argument is the most idiotic of them all. Top of the turd pile it is for you.
I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul. 🤣🤣🤣
June 30th, 2026 at 10:35 am
Say what you will, you can’t take away from him that he is always effective postseason
June 30th, 2026 at 10:45 am
“”Just about time for the same tired, rehashed comments from the literati of jbf. Pro Baker guys expressing his virtues, typically overwhelmed by the haters who will use the same arguments they’ve used for months now to push back against the narrative formed in the post. Rinse, repeat. Until he signed, we’ll get the daily post about his contract followed by the daily comments as described. Yawn.””
People post about the topics that are layed out by JBF. Every single NFL fan site does the exact same thing. We’re in the middle of a very long offseason especially for writers that have to cover their teams daily. After a while there’s not much fresh material to write and comment about.
June 30th, 2026 at 10:47 am
Let us have a little context. NFL is big business with big management and big labor. Both management and labor have to save face among their peers. So, in negotiations, both sides have to take the posture –love that word– that they are toiling responsibly for their side. For either side to jump into to fray with an offer that appears grossly advantageous to the other side would make that first side anathema among its peers. Consider how other owners went nuts over the deal Watson got from the Browns. Or, historically, how MLB players condemned The great Tony Gwynn for giving Sand Diego a hometown discount to finish his career with them. No one wants to be a Judas to his peers, so no one starts off looking as if he folding to the other side. They spar a few rounds –posturing, if you like– to show that they have some fight. Then they sit down, do their business, and have a beer.
June 30th, 2026 at 10:48 am
Baker has had good and even some great moments but he has also had horrible moments. Baker needs to be consistent and smarter. It should not matter what other quarterbacks are being paid. Baker’s salary should depend upon his value to the team. Is 28-26 the record of a franchise quarterback? We can’t shackle ourselves with a mediocre quarterback for the next few years. If so, let’s go get Jacoby Brissett or bring back Jameis or Kyle. At least we will be able to resign UFA’s who actually are consistently good.
June 30th, 2026 at 10:50 am
The Bucs already have like 30 million in dead cap money invested in Baker. They’d lose a darn well *better* get a deal done or they end up with nobody and paying for it like they had somebody. That would be nuts when they can spread the hit over many years.
June 30th, 2026 at 10:53 am
Oldschool1976 Says:
June 30th, 2026 at 8:34 am
…Tua now plays for the minimum so I don’t think we can use that as a base….
—————————————————————
But, we can take this as an example of a team that gives a player the bag HOPING he will play better AND stay healthy.
June 30th, 2026 at 11:03 am
And stop with the record. Baker is tied for second in TD passes since he joined the Bucs. That record also includes the defense which wasn’t playing well especially most of last year. Now we may have 4-6 new starters on defense- and that should dramatically help performance!
If a QB is tossing that many TD passes, he is doing his job. Time for the rest of the team to pick it up a bit.
June 30th, 2026 at 11:05 am
@ Stpetematt Says: “The Bucs already have like 30 million in dead cap money invested in Baker. They’d lose a darn well *better* get a deal done or they end up with nobody and paying for it like they had somebody. That would be nuts when they can spread the hit over many years.”
Yeah, that makes soooo much sense Lmao. It’d be a whole lot worse being STUCK with a dud at Quarterback, & on the hook for $150-MIL. And, it’s just SUCH a stupid weak argument. More PATHETIC (excuse for signing YOUR BOY) than anything else, but I would not expect anything less.
June 30th, 2026 at 11:11 am
Bee, Don’t try too hard to read between the lines. I’m actually of the mind of having Baker play this year out. Obviously I’m aware he’s under contract. If he has a great season, he makes more. If not, we avoid the headache of being stuck with a QB we are overpaying. But my main point remains as we can see By the way, the thread has played out.
June 30th, 2026 at 11:21 am
“STOP with the RECORD.” Lmao. Yeah, stop that nonsense… Do NOT expose who HE has been for all throughout his entire career now, for 8-YEARS HahaHah. LoL. They are HYSTERICAL NOW, just the exact same as those with TDS. Guaranteed, they are all one of the same. It’s how people who are wrong act, when they have insecure egos… They ignore anything that is logical (and the reality). So, they become all HYSTERICAL. It’s ALL they’ve got, when the facts start adding up against them, and the TRUTH comes out.
June 30th, 2026 at 11:32 am
And, $30-MIL is just a drop in the bucket anyway, on a complete REBUILD! It’s NOTHING. You go ahead and just eat ALL OF IT immediately in 2027, in order to get rid of it off the books ASAP… If you are allowed to. Because, it would be IRRELEVANT. Cause, hopefully, your roster in mostly depleted to begin with, AFTER this upcoming trade-deadline. Then, you’re getting a “bridge” on the CHEAP while you’re ‘rebuilding’ and tanking 2027 (with ZERO shot) anyway! You move on ASAP and you’re starting over FRESH in 2028… 💯 FREE & CLEAR. Over. Done With. You Moved-On. NEXT.
June 30th, 2026 at 11:32 am
It’ll all work out….even if we play the season and take a risk to see if he’ll end up costing us 60 if he does so well. Im kind of moving into that camp now. Offer 50 now, he turns it down, or pay 55-60 if he balls out and we’re in the playoffs….A LOT of mouths to feed, so we can only afford him so much.
Thats the thing i dont get with some of these players….”GOTTA MAKE THE MOST” when you’re already a generationally wealthy dude as long as you’re smart and dont waste it. Thats the thing I respected so much about Brady…he knew theres only so much to go around and wanted to be a team builder and keep guys trying to earn their cut too. I mean, I get it, every STAR deserves to be paid, but jeeze, reel those expectations in a little please…. “take one for the team”
eh, we’ll see i guess.
June 30th, 2026 at 11:48 am
I’m in the camp of don’t sign him now and wait to see how he does. If you do sign him then keep it 3 years max and 50-53 million max a year average. Hedge your bets and draft a new QB if we are so bad we are in top 10 picks. Keep baker to let new qb learn for one year then replace baker in year two and keep as backup. If new qb is good then trade or cut baker in year 3. If you don’t sign him then Baker needs to prove consistency this season. If bucs win two playoff games or more and baker does well (he doesn’t cause the loss) then pay the man. I think his ego wants 4-5 years and 200-250 million deal. I get it but having 3 and 150 million is safer bet. I want to believe with healthy offense and a better OC then Baker will do well. I want the bucs to win and if baker is part of that then great, if not then it’s a business and performance matters more than his personality which people like but wins matter more to me as a bucs fan.
June 30th, 2026 at 11:55 am
A couple of things to consider:
The market changes every year, so don’t use 2023 dollars to think about a 2027 contract.
It is so #@!# hard to get a good quarterback, and it is a lottery ticket to get a tier 1 elite QB.
An elite QB can get you a dynasty, while a good one can get you a ring. TB vs Brad.
So yes, in my opinion Baker can be a good enough QB to get us a ring. I don’t think we need a HOF All Time defense to carry him like Dilfer, but he does need to string together four Good Baker games in the postseason. That’s what makes me think of him as Favre-lite. Brett Farve had another ring in his grasp before he Brett Favre’d all over himself in NO.
June 30th, 2026 at 12:18 pm
Melvin reading your writing you just sound like a manic crazy person. And you lack logic entirely.
Why flush money down the toilet? That seems like a bad idea.
June 30th, 2026 at 12:37 pm
Beeej Says:
“Say what you will, you can’t take away from him that he is always effective postseason”
Always effective??? He’s made the postseason three out of 8 years.
And never made it past round two. How is that effective???
When he gets to the NFC title game come talk to me.
June 30th, 2026 at 12:56 pm
Beat that horse! Deals don’t get done till the 11th hour. That would be July 28th when camp opens. That also means we have four more weeks of Baker contract BS. At Joe’s pace that’s probably 60 more Baker contract articles. Kick that pony Joe!
June 30th, 2026 at 1:58 pm
wyo
no hatred at all…..sayingthat he’s 28-26 as a starter is not hate…its facts…
saying that he deserves a contract with 1 playoff win 3years ago is crazy!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
June 30th, 2026 at 2:27 pm
Just for the record on Tua with the Fins
Tua Tagovailoa posted a 46-32 regular-season record (.590 win percentage) as the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins across his six seasons with the franchise.Dolphins Career Summary:Record: 46-32-0Passing Yards: 18,166Touchdowns: 120Interceptions: 59
June 30th, 2026 at 2:46 pm
All good. No stupid extensions when the dude is a demonstrated choke artist in the most important games and moments.
June 30th, 2026 at 2:49 pm
Can’t overpay a QB who led a team to a 2-7 finish
SHOW ME BAKER
show me you can lead a team to the playoffs, I like Baker but he’s not a franchise qb, he’s a good piece but he needs players around him to succeed and if you over pay him you can’t give him the players he needs around him to win
June 30th, 2026 at 2:51 pm
Licht has a salary cap and other players like Vita that he wants to extend. He’s also working with Vita’s agent too. He wants to get both guys signed and I think he will.
June 30th, 2026 at 2:54 pm
Every QB needs players around him to win.
June 30th, 2026 at 2:57 pm
You think Tom Brady chose the Bucs because the GM was nice? He looked all around the NFL for the best defense and O-line combination and the Bucs checked all the boxes. The weapons were a nice bonus.