{"id":837463,"date":"2026-03-27T19:05:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T19:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/837463\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T19:05:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T19:05:31","slug":"why-buccaneers-baker-mayfield-is-facing-career-defining-season-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/837463\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Buccaneers’ Baker Mayfield is facing career-defining season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Buccaneers’ Baker Mayfield is facing career-defining season<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There is no denying that Baker Mayfield’s move to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> has been a huge success, and yes, that might be odd to say given no Super Bowl, but Baker has performed well.<\/p>\n

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He’s taken the Buccaneers to the playoffs in two of his three seasons, and he’s also been a Pro Bowler twice during that span as well.<\/p>\n

A career resurgence, if there ever was one.<\/p>\n

But now, 2026 looms large for Baker\u00a0because he is in the final year of his deal, and we haven’t heard much talk about an extension…\u00a0yet.<\/p>\n

And for ESPN’s Matt Bowen, Mayfield is up for a big contract in 2027.<\/p>\n

“Mayfield pairs his aggressive throwing mentality with the ability to scramble and make plays outside of structure,” Bowen wrote<\/a>. “His numbers dipped last season despite a strong start, but he threw for 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns in 2024. Mayfield’s savvy play style is contagious — he battles.”<\/p>\n

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More:Analyst issues Texans caution over C.J Stroud contract<\/a><\/p>\n

Mayfield to remain a Buc?<\/p>\n

That would be most people’s guess, right?<\/p>\n

After what Mayfield has done for the franchise since arriving, and the level of play he’s produced, Tampa can definitely win with Baker.<\/p>\n

But money talks, and as we know, there will be a few teams going quarterback shopping in the offseason, and the market for Baker could be quite strong.<\/p>\n

However, I get the sense something will happen with Baker and the Bucs at some stage this season.<\/p>\n

If not, Baker will head into free agency, likely with a few teams chasing his signature.<\/p>\n

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More NFL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why Buccaneers’ Baker Mayfield is facing career-defining season originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":837464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[1842,211,7,14245,6,704,250,2597,2596,222],"class_list":["post-837463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-baker-mayfield","tag-buccaneers","tag-football","tag-matt-bowen","tag-nfl","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaybuccaneers","tag-texans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116302703940792752","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/837464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}