The Buccaneers may have just watched Cody Mauch’s next contract get a lot more expensive.
Tampa Bay is heading into an offseason loaded with decisions, and Mauch is one of several key players moving toward contract-year territory. That already made him a name to watch. Then the Falcons changed the market.
Atlanta re-signed Matthew Bergeron to a four-year, $96 million extension, a deal that pays him $24 million per year and ties him with Cowboys guard Tyler Smith as the highest-paid guard in NFL history. For the Buccaneers, that kind of number lands with real force when they start thinking about Mauch’s future.
The Bergeron deal is especially eye-catching because, as Fox Sports’ Greg Auman pointed out, Bergeron has never made a Pro Bowl and has never ranked higher than 20th among guards by PFF. Even so, he just reset the top of the market. That has obvious ripple effects for any team trying to lock up a young interior lineman who’s trending upward.
Mauch’s arrow is pointing the right way. He enters the final year of his rookie contract after missing most of last season with a season-ending injury in Week 2.
But when he was healthy in 2024, he ranked as PFF’s No. 14 guard and finished No. 6 in pass blocking. If he comes back healthy in 2026 and takes another step, he could very well be viewed as a top-10 guard - and that’s the kind of rise that can push a player beyond Tampa Bay’s comfort zone.
That’s the problem for the Bucs. They’re already staring at a possible blockbuster Baker Mayfield extension, one that would be the biggest contract in franchise history.
Vita Vea, Yaya Diaby and a club option decision on Chris Godwin are also on the list. This is not a team with unlimited room to pay everybody.
And the offensive line is already expensive. Tampa Bay is spending more than $20 million annually on both Tristan Wirfs and Luke Goedeke, which means the club is already carrying one of the NFL’s priciest fronts. Keeping Mauch in the fold long term would be ideal, but the math may not cooperate.
The team did add a possible fallback plan in Billy Schrauth, whom it drafted in the fifth round. He’s a natural candidate to be developed as a potential successor if Mauch ends up pricing himself out.
For now, the Buccaneers would love to keep Mauch. The issue is that the guard market just jumped again, and Tampa Bay’s next round of negotiations could get difficult in a hurry.
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