Baker Mayfield got the contract he wanted, but his first game under that new deal turned into a mess in Cincinnati.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers dropped their Week 1 matchup to the Bengals, 33-27, after a night defined by giveaways. Tampa Bay coughed it up four times, and Mayfield was directly responsible for three of them.
The margin mattered. Cincinnati turned those mistakes into points, including two defensive touchdowns, and never let the lead slip away for good.
Mayfield’s roughest moment came early. On the second drive of the game, he tried to extend a 3rd-and-9 play, got hit from behind and lost the ball.
Demetrius Knight Jr. picked it up and took it in for Cincinnati’s first touchdown of 2026, giving the Bengals a 7-3 lead. From there, the Bengals stayed in front and eventually pushed the advantage to 21-3 before Tampa Bay started to claw back.
His second turnover came in the red zone and might have been the one that hurt the most. After an interception was wiped out by a Bengals penalty, Mayfield tried to scramble for the score but lost the ball into the end zone instead. What should have been a chance to pull within four points turned into another empty possession, and Cincinnati answered by building its biggest lead of the game at 18.
Mayfield’s third fumble came late, when Tampa Bay was trying to keep the comeback alive. Around midfield and on first down, he held the ball too long while looking deep and was sacked again. That turnover came with the Buccaneers down 10, and Cincinnati followed it with another field goal to stretch the margin to 13 with just over five minutes left, effectively closing the door.
It was a frustrating opener for a quarterback who just landed a major payday. Mayfield and the Buccaneers reached a new three-year deal before the season, worth about $55 million per year and $165 million overall, with the contract beginning next year and running through the 2029 season. He had been headed toward free agency after this season, but both sides found common ground just days before kickoff after spending much of the summer far apart in talks.
The contract places Mayfield among the NFL’s highest-paid quarterbacks, tied for the third-highest average annual value behind only Patrick Mahomes and Dak Prescott. He’s in the same $55 million-per-year neighborhood as Matthew Stafford, Jordan Love, Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow and Josh Allen.
For now, though, the first game after the extension is the one that stands out. Mayfield has time to settle in and justify the deal, but Week 1 was not the kind of start Tampa Bay had in mind. The contract also makes moving on from him difficult, with the Buccaneers not realistically looking at a cut until after the 2027 season and no easy escape until after 2028.
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