PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are confident Baker Mayfield will be their quarterback beyond the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
Mayfield is entering the final season of a three-year, $100 million extension he signed after reviving his career in Tampa Bay in 2023. Bucs general manager Jason Licht said he\u2019s had conversations with Mayfield\u2019s representatives and anticipates getting an extension done.<\/p>\n
\u201cBaker is still our quarterback. He\u2019s one of the toughest guys on the team. He\u2019s a great leader,\u201d Licht said. \u201cEverything kind of revolves around the quarterback spot. At some point, I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll figure something out. There\u2019s no timetable on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayfield has thrived with the Buccaneers since replacing Tom Brady. Once discarded by three teams, the 2018 No. 1 overall pick led Tampa Bay to a division title and a playoff win in 2023. He followed that up with his best season in 2024, completing 71.4% of his passes for 4,500 yards, 41 touchdowns and 16 interceptions for a 106.8 passer rating.<\/p>\n
Mayfield was an early front-runner for AP NFL MVP last year when the Bucs opened 6-2, but the injury-riddled team unraveled and failed to win its fifth straight NFC South title. Mayfield, playing through injuries, saw his production drop. He threw for 3,693 yards, 26 TDs, 11 picks and had a 90.6 passer rating.<\/p>\n
The Buccaneers lost six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans in free agency and veteran linebacker Lavonte David so this is unquestionably Mayfield’s team.<\/p>\n
Licht isn\u2019t concerned about his quarterback holding out.<\/p>\n
\u201cBaker is a true professional. He\u2019s a leader of this team. I have confidence we\u2019re going to be OK,\u201d Licht said.<\/p>\n
Licht also isn\u2019t worried that Mayfield might want to play out his contract year and increase his value on the open market.<\/p>\n
\u201cBaker is a true pro. Baker has never let us down. I\u2019m not going to deal with hypotheticals. We love Baker,\u201d Licht said.<\/p>\n
The team also wants to extend outside linebacker YaYa Diaby\u2019s contract. He\u2019s entering the final season of his rookie deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love to have YaYa here long term,\u201d Licht said. \u201cHe\u2019s a very good, young player that\u2019s probably a little bit underappreciated, I think, overall for what he\u2019s done. He\u2019s a good, young player. We like him a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are confident Baker Mayfield will be their quarterback beyond the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[1842,211,7,7778,9195,115876,700,6,27878,27876,115748,83965,704,250,2597,2596,1369,22119],"class_list":["post-844390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-baker-mayfield","tag-buccaneers","tag-football","tag-jason-licht","tag-lavonte-david","tag-mayfield-bucs-licht","tag-mike-evans","tag-nfl","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-40774-ap-arizona-sports-only","tag-product-40780-ap-florida-sports-only","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaybuccaneers","tag-tom-brady","tag-yaya-diaby"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116322206341547415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844390","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=844390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}