Baker Mayfield’s contract standoff is still hanging over Tampa Bay, but Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht made it clear he isn’t ready to assume the quarterback is headed anywhere.
Mayfield set the start of training camp as the deadline to reach an extension, then walked away from talks after receiving offers he called “not appealing whatsoever.” That left him on track to play out the final year of his deal, with free agency looming in March. Licht, though, sounded confident at the end of August that the Bucs still have a real shot to keep him from hitting the market.
“I’m very optimistic about it,” Licht said during the WFLA broadcast of his team’s preseason finale (via ESPN’s Jenna Laine). “He wants to play.
He wants to prove to us that he is the franchise quarterback that we said that he was. So, we’ll just have to see how it plays out.
I’ll never close the door on anything in the short term, but right now, he’s focused on football.”
There is a safety net in place if Tampa Bay wants to keep Mayfield beyond this season. The franchise tag would be available, and both sides appear open to that possibility. But that route would carry a steep $50.3MM cap hit, which makes a new multiyear deal the more attractive outcome if Mayfield keeps playing at a level that justifies it.
The issue, as it stands, is term as much as money. Mayfield is willing to hear the Bucs out, but according to Laine, his agent knows not to circle back before the season ends unless Tampa Bay puts something on the table that matches his salary demands.
The latest reporting on the talks says the Bucs floated an offer with an average annual value of at least $50MM, but it was only for two years. Mayfield wants longer security.
For now, Licht says there won’t be a quick return to the negotiating table. When he spoke to the media on Tuesday, he indicated there are no immediate plans to reopen talks and shifted the conversation to Tampa Bay’s Week 1 meeting with the Bengals. In classic Bill Belichick fashion, he summed it up with, “we’re on to Cincinnati.”
Licht also had plenty to say about the quarterback behind Mayfield. Jalon Daniels, an undrafted rookie, won the backup job and will open the season as Tampa Bay’s QB2. That makes him the first rookie to hold the Buccaneers’ No. 2 quarterback spot to start a season since Mike Glennon in 2013, though Glennon was a third-round pick.
Licht said Daniels earned the job early, before the preseason games even started, and then strengthened his case after the opener against the Jets.
“In this case, early in the morning. I think it was before our first preseason game, we loved what we were seeing out here and what we were getting from (offensive coordinator) Zac (Robinson) and (quarterbacks coach) Chandler (Whitmer) and (passing game coordinator) T.J.
(Yates),” Licht said (via Stroud). “And then I think after the first preseason game against the Jets, I think the conversation started going towards, he’s got to prove that he can’t be the No. 2 more so than he’s got to prove that he can be.”
Licht also pushed back on the idea that experience alone should dictate who backs up a team with playoff expectations. In his view, Tampa Bay is better off with a talented young passer who is prepared, even if he is still learning on the job.
“You can go back and forth with the experience argument,” Licht said. “But I’d rather have a very talented, prepared, inexperienced quarterback than going with experience just for the sake of saying the guy is experienced.
… There’s going to be ups and downs. But we feel good about where he’s at, his trajectory, and we’re excited.”
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