Baker Mayfield Feels 'Disrespected' by Buccaneers After Contract Negotiations

Thursday's camp day was the first time media got to speak to Mayfield in a while, and he didn't hold back at all when he was asked about his contract and his thoughts on how the Buccaneers handled it.

Baker Mayfield Lashes Out at Buccaneers After 'Disappointing' Talks

Mayfield stressed during his media availability that he is thankful for the Bucs taking a chance on him in 2023 and that he loves the city of Tampa and hopes to make it home for the rest of his career.

That being said, he made it clear that Tampa Bay's offers were not appealing "whatsoever" and that it was disappointing to see the Bucs come in low when he believes he's worth much more than that.

"I think I'm a franchise quarterback. I've been told I'm a franchise quarterback. It's been said publicly from ownership down here," Mayfield said. "And so to not have a deal done is very disappointing. But I said the deadline was a deadline, and I addressed the team to let them know I meant that. It's all ball."

Mayfield seemed to lash out at Tampa Bay's style of contract negotiation in general. He told reporters that the team "historically" treats negotiations like this, and that itself is also disappointing to him.

"I'm not the first one to go through it like this," Mayfield said. "This is kind of historically how they've done negotiations. It's disappointing when you think you're a cornerstone of the franchise to be treated like that. But disappointing, I know the contract and salary cap, what's going on. Franchise tag isn't exactly in play for them. There'd be a lot of dead money. So it is what it is."

Contrary to what Mayfield said, the franchise tag would indeed be an option for him. Mayfield would have significant dead money, but because the franchise tag is a separate team charge, the Bucs won't look at it as an addition to his 2027 cap hit and will budget for it accordingly.

Obviously, though, Mayfield hopes it doesn't come to that. The ball is in his court, and all he has to do to get the contract he wants is to play excellent football in 2026.

He absolutely plans to do just that. And he hopes to make the Buccaneers pay if he does.

“If you waited too long to take care of your franchise quarterback, that’s too bad. It’s gonna get even worse — I'm gonna have a great year," Mayfield said.

Training camp will continue for the Buccaneers on Friday before the team's first day off on Saturday.