So the Bucs have a two-time Pro Bowl starting quarterback in his prime who hasn’t missed a game in three Tampa Bay seasons.

The same quarterback, Baker Mayfield, also had a rough second half of last season after a stellar start. What was the core reason? Poor health, poor decisions, or an unqualified playcaller?

Regardless, the Bucs have a good starting QB who has shown stretches of greatness.

Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht has said Mayfield is a keeper, but Mayfield is entering the final year of his contract — 2026 is the last year of his three-year, $100 million deal.

Teams rarely let QBs they want and respect reach the end of their contracts. Those guys get extensions.

Will Mayfield get one soon? Six-time Bucs Pro Bowl defensive tackle Gerald McCoy says the Bucs extending Mayfield soon is a no-brainer.

“Pay him. Pay him,” McCoy said of Mayfield on WDAE radio. “Heck yeah. Do y’all see the QB market? Who’s out here? Tell me who’s out here. Tell me who’s coming out in the draft; stop with the ‘maybes.’ I keep telling everybody college football is glorified high school football. That’s what it is. You got a couple of people that make it [in] the league, ‘oh, yeah, that’s great.’ Stop looking at the draft. Look around the landscape of quarterbacking right now. I think any Buccaneers fan should look at the history of our quarterbacks and it should tell you that it’s hard to find a franchise guy. So while we have one, we need to pay him and keep him around as long as we can. People go through ups and downs, but if you don’t have that position, what you got? Pay Baker Mayfield. He’s earned that right.”

Despite Mayfield’s struggles to close last season, the Joe typing here absolutely would say Mayfield is a top-15 quarterback in the NFL. That’s not “great,” but it’s also not something you throw in the trash so you can go fishing for better.

But the idea of making Mayfield earn his next contract through his 2026 performance has merit.

Former NFL agent Joel Corry penned a deep dive on Mayfield’s contract future for CBS.

Corry makes the case that QB salaries likely have dipped temporarily after some big salaries blew up on teams (see Kyler Murray, Tua Tagovailoa, etc.) As a starting point for the Mayfield talks, Corry pointed to Daniel Jones of the Colts just signing a two-year, $88 million contract with incentives that could pay him $100 million over two years.

Jones, for those unaware, is coming off an Achilles tear and a history of wildly inconsistent play for the Giants. Jones is not as good as Mayfield.

Big decision ahead for Team Glazer, Licht and Mayfield. The Joe typing here is confident an extension will get done before opening day.

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