Mixed Feelings On Baker Mayfield
July 3rd, 2026
A powerful voice in #NFLMedia sees a lot of bias when it comes to Baker Mayfield.
While most ex-players seem to love Mayfield’s game, media in general remains rather polarized when it comes to the Bucs’ franchise QB, says former Jets personnel chief and linebackers coach Pat Kirwan.
Joe notices the same thing and was intrigued to hear Kirwan talk about it on his popular SiriusXM NFL Radio show. Kirwan is at every major NFL event (Combine, Super Bowl, Senior Bowl, Owners Meetings) and he’s a CBS-TV producer. He’s got his pulse all over the NFL and NFL media.
Kirwan talked about the Mayfield contract situation multiple times this week and noted how Mayfield is polarizing, in the same boat as Sam Darnold.
“Baker and Sam Darnold, the story’s already written. The [writers and analysts] are just waiting to publish it. And if he has a bad game, out it comes,” Kirwan said.
Kirwan added that the contract-extension debate about 31-year-old Mayfield further illustrates how Mayfield has supporters and detractors. “If you don’t like Baker, you’ll use age against him. If you do like Baker, you’ll use age for him,” he said.
Interesting to Joe is how hard Kirwan has been lobbying for Mayfield. Kirwan is friend of Todd Bowles and Bowles calls in to Kirwan’s radio show during most weeks of the regular season. Hmmm.
Kirwan has made a case for Mayfield earning Jordan Love money ($54 million+ annually) and he notes that Mayfield surely wants to eclipse older QB contracts like the ones Love and Jared Goff got in past years. “If you give [Mayfield] $52 million, he hasn’t really passed anybody,” Kirwan said.
One pro-Mayfield argument that annoys Joe is one Kirwan likes. It’s about how Mayfield did so well succeeding Tom Brady and few guys could have handled that.
First, the Bucs offense was horrid in Brady’s last year. And second, that argument was for Mayfield’s last negotiation — when he signed a three-year, $100 million deal before the 2024 season. It’s ancient history now and shoudn’t be a factor in a contract extension.
July 3rd, 2026 at 7:29 pm
Uh-oh. NY Post reporting Baker Mayfield is at the Swift/Kelce wedding. Could that mean Baker jumping to the Chiefs?
July 3rd, 2026 at 7:50 pm
Again, absent from this article is how both Green Bay and Detroit took a step backwards after foolishly paying their average quarterbacks big bucks.
The byproduct of going down this path is obvious. Overpay your quarterback and say bye-bye to a chance for team greatness. The math damn near slaps you in the face. When you pay one guy and your ability to sign other stars vanishes, you lose!
Remember when Miami signed Tua to that high dollar extension? The results were devastating and should be a cautionary tale for all teams, especially the Bucs.
One can only hope Jason Licht knows how to both add and read.
30—33 mil or let him walk.
Build a team with a reasonably priced QB and spend the QB savings on a great supporting cast.
Both SB starters combined didn’t come close to what Baker is asking. Result? GOOD TEAMS!
July 3rd, 2026 at 8:04 pm
You can’t give a QB $50+ million a year that couldn’t win one more game in a 2-7 stretch run with a weak schedule.
That would simply make zero sense. Anyone with a brain realizes this.
And we need to see how he plays without Mike Evans as his security blanket.
He can’t throw the ball accurately past 20 yards. And he’s not a pocket passer.
Lastly, going 1-9 in prime time in three years means you aren’t a franchise quarterback.
July 3rd, 2026 at 8:21 pm
What’s amazing about how well Baker did following Brady is that nobody thought Baker Mayfield had a snowball’s chance in hell to do so with any level of success. Most people thought he would do a face plant and the Bucs would be lucky to win 4-6 games in 2023. That was the consensus in the media. That kind of proves Kirwan’s point that the negative story is already written and just waiting to be published when it comes to Baker and when any opportunity presents itself, it becomes a feeding frenzy.
July 3rd, 2026 at 8:30 pm
We deserve better…….
July 3rd, 2026 at 9:13 pm
Pay Baker and let’s all move on to something else. Like who is Bowles backup.
July 3rd, 2026 at 9:36 pm
Baker will make 54M x4. Agree with Joe Bob … time to move on.
July 3rd, 2026 at 10:23 pm
Prime time games don’t mean anything more than regular games on Sundays.
Just stop. How many times are you going to repeat the same nonsense. The team got shredded by injuries and it was a lost year. This year will most likely look much more like 2024 if the offensive line stays healthy.
July 3rd, 2026 at 11:24 pm
There’s lots of argument about what the Bucs can pay a qb. KC of course pays Mahomes a lot. Stanford has a 1-year 55 million contract. Purdy and Darnold make low figures on account of their last contracts but will get big raises soon. Maye and Nix are under their rookie deals. So the Bucs could save cap space by drafting a new quarterback, but that poses big risks and it often takes years to see if the player is top-flight.
The reality is that the team has to pay Baker to keep him. He’s cheap — relatively — this year at around 35 million. Next year we could franchise him but only for near 60 million. To have a franchise qb teams are eventually going to pay up. Or they can save money during a Lost Decade.
July 3rd, 2026 at 11:39 pm
Baker is a Swiftie. Don’t pay him a dollar more until he wins this division
July 3rd, 2026 at 11:57 pm
Yes, Joe.
July 4th, 2026 at 3:55 am
Baker has shown nothing that says he has outplayed his value stipulated in his last contract. Yes there is an adjustment for the market as salary caps rise but proportionally it was shown that’s the team around significantly impacted his individual success.