Pro Football
Bucs Baker Mayfield Isn’t a Side Piece Anymore, It’s Time for Tampa to Make Him the Main Man
Baker Mayfield has spent his entire football life proving he belongs. Which is strange, considering how often he’s been the one dragging everyone else into belief.
He walked on at Texas Tech, walked on at Oklahoma, and walked away with the Heisman Trophy, along the way becoming college football’s favorite villain when he planted a Sooners flag right in the middle of Ohio State’s turf. It was brash, unnecessary, and completely on-brand. Baker has never entered a room quietly when kicking down the door was an option.
Cleveland took him first overall in 2018 to save a franchise coming off an 0–16 nightmare. He broke its winless streak as a rookie, posted an 11-win season two years later, and delivered Cleveland its first playoff victory since the 1994 season. Then came 2021. Playing through a torn labrum and a fractured bone in his non-throwing shoulder, his production understandably dipped. Instead of backing the guy who rescued them, Cleveland traded for Deshaun Watson, handed him a guaranteed fortune, and kicked Mayfield to the curb.
Short, chaotic stops in Carolina and Los Angeles followed, highlighted by a wild 98-yard game-winning drive for the Rams two days after learning the playbook. But Tampa was where he finally received a clean slate.
Inheriting Tom Brady’s locker room is the NFL equivalent of taking the microphone right after Frank Sinatra. Mayfield didn’t flinch. On a dirt-cheap $4 million deal, he led the Buccaneers to an NFC South title and a playoff win. Tampa rewarded him with a three-year contract, and he responded with another division crown and another Pro Bowl selection in 2024.
Tampa stumbled to 8–9 and missed the playoffs in 2025, but Mayfield still threw for 3,693 yards and 26 touchdowns while navigating injuries, another coordinator change, and an offense that never found its previous rhythm. It wasn’t his best season in Tampa, but it hardly erased everything he had already proven.
Yet here we are again.
With extension talks now finished until after the season, Mayfield will enter 2026 on the final year of his contract, potentially positioning him to become one of the biggest names in free agency next March. Meanwhile, Tampa is quietly burning. Mike Evans left for San Francisco, Lavonte David retired, Vita Vea requested a trade, and Mayfield is preparing to work with Tampa’s fifth offensive coordinator in five years.
The Buccaneers can’t solve every problem with a single checkbook. But they *can* start with the most important position in professional sports.
Vita Vea is a game-wrecking force, and Tampa should do everything possible to keep the anchor of its defense. But the priority must be Mayfield. Defensive tackles ruin game plans; franchise quarterbacks dictate an organization’s destiny.
Tampa already knows what life without a quarterback looks like. The Buccaneers spent years wandering through the quarterback wilderness before Brady arrived, and Mayfield saved them from tumbling right back into it.
This isn’t a tryout anymore. Mayfield has proven who he is: durable, productive, adored by his locker room, and built for late-January football. He brings a raw, infectious energy that sells tickets and gives a franchise its soul.
Every month Tampa waits, another quarterback contract raises the price, and every competent team without an answer at the position becomes another potential bidder.
It’s time for Tampa to stop treating Baker Mayfield like a temporary fling and pay him like its franchise quarterback. Otherwise, the Buccaneers are going to learn the exact same lesson Cleveland did: Baker Mayfield is much easier to undervalue when he’s on your team than when he’s winning somewhere else.
