The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have their quarterback.
The Buccaneers re-signed Baker Mayfield to a three-year, $100 million deal following a career season on a one-year, prove-it deal after floating around the league the past couple of seasons. Mayfield put up career highs in passing yards and passing touchdowns earning himself a nice payday and likely will reap the benefits as the Bucs were able to bring back much of the team they fielded in 2023.
Although we already know where Mayfield will be playing for the foreseeable future, it is interesting to see how he was valued around the league and how close he actually could have been to leaving Tampa Bay.
According to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, the Buccaneers' NFC South rivals in the Atlanta Falcons had Mayfield high up on their quarterback wish list heading into free agency prior to reaching a deal with former Minnesota Vikings' QB Kirk Cousins.
“So at the end of the deep dive, the Falcons had Cousins as their top veteran target, Tampa’s Baker Mayfield after him,” Breer stated.
After hiring Raheem Morris to become the next head coach and Morris then putting together the rest of his staff, it became extremely apparent that the Falcons would need to bring in help at the QB position. The Desmond Ridder experiment failed drastically and backup Taylor Heineke wasn't much better when he came in for relief in 2023.
The Falcons have a decent roster to build around and seemingly are just an average NFL QB away from being able to compete to make the playoffs.
They ultimately chose to go with their first option in Cousins even though the veteran isn't getting any younger and is coming off a serious injury where he tore his Achilles tendon. If the Falcons were to have somehow stolen Mayfield away from the Buccaneers, it would have left a sour taste in the mouths of not only the fans, but the franchise as well, as they gave Mayfield the opportunity to resurrect his career.
Hypotheticals are all in the past now and don't matter, but at the end of the day, it does bring a certain feeling that your QB was a wanted man during free agency and you were able to hold onto him with the hopes that he can bring you to the promised land.
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