Baker Mayfield Settles for ‘Underpaid’ $33M Salary Despite a Better Playoff Record Than Dak Prescott

Baker Mayfield turned out to be a late bloomer of a quarterback, and that’s been problematic for everyone. Fans and analysts don’t know where to rank him, fantasy football players don’t know when to draft him, and worse of all, his own team is unsure of how much they should pay him.

The back-to-back Pro Bowler has guided the Tampa Bay Buccaneers towards the playoffs in each of the past two seasons, and he even managed to pick up the second playoff win of his career against the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023. Nevertheless, Mayfield is still being forced to settle for an average salary of $33 million.

That means that, despite having a better playoff record than the likes of Dak Prescott and Justin Herbert, Mayfield is just the 19th highest paid quarterback in the NFL today. In terms of salaries, he’s more comparable to Geno Smith and Sam Darnold, even though he’s produced more passing yards than any of them throughout the past two years.

Prescott’s contract, in particular, has become a point of comparison for almost every other signal caller in the league today. Any time talks of salaries come up, the Dallas Cowboys’ premiere passer is routinely mentioned, which is mainly due to the fact that he was able to become one of the league’s richest players despite having a career playoff record of 2-5.

Of course, there’s also the possibility of a pay day being just around the corner for Mayfield, especially if he’s able to secure a third consecutive NFC South title. Given the current state of that division, which many consider to be the weakest in all of football, that’s certainly possible.

The former Oklahoma Sooner is currently averaging 568 pass attempts, 4,272 passing yards, 34.5 touchdowns, and a 67.9% completion percentage since he first arrived in Tampa. Assuming that the Buccaneers want to keep their stranglehold on the south, then a contract extension seems inevitable.

At the very least, fans should expect Mayfield’s next contract to include no less than $40 million per year, but $50 million is well within the range of possible outcomes. The dollar amount may ultimately come down to the Buccaneers’ visions of the future, but so long as they are collecting divisional titles, it’s safe to assume that they will want Mayfield to be a part of that future.

In which case, they’ll have to break out the checkbook. Quarterbacks aren’t cheap, and neither is this level of production.

The 2025 regular season will likely go a long way in those future negotiations between Mayfield and the Bucs organization. Much of his recent success has been attributed to the schemes of Liam Coen, who now resides with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Should he manage to prove that he’s capable of producing in spite of the change in coordinators, then it’s incredibly likely that a deal will get done at some point in the next off season. Until then, however, Mayfield will have to make the most of what remains of Mike Evans and his flashy new toy, Emeka Egbuka.