Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers have been working to agree on a brand new contract to maintain the veteran passer in Tampa over the past several months. Wanting to have reached a brand new deal before getting back on the sector, Mayfield set a deadline for the beginning of coaching camp. This deadline is now two days away, and as of about two and a half weeks ago, the 2 sides were still not near an agreement.
Based on previous reports, evidently failure to come back to an agreement by the deadline wouldn’t be the top of the world. Because either side have repeatedly expressed their interest in reaching a deal, it was deemed unlikely that Mayfield would purposefully not participate with a holdout of any kind. Once the season is over, and he can put his attention on negotiations again, there appears to be confidence that negotiations would pick up again within the offseason.
This confidence comes from reports from ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler that Mayfield is not afraid of playing on the franchise tag. Mayfield is under contract for the upcoming 12 months then will grow to be a free agent once the brand new league 12 months begins. At that time, he and the team will get one other opportunity to achieve an agreement, but when that fails, as well, the Buccaneers still have the choice of franchise tagging Mayfield, giving the 2 sides one more opportunity the next offseason.
Some quarterbacks can be offended by the dearth of concession that may result in a franchise tag, causing them to make trade requests or hold out, refusing to play with out a full contract. Mayfield, though, appears willing to play out a season on a contract that’s fully guaranteed 12 months at a reasonably generous rate. Seeing the litany of quarterbacks now making over $50MM per 12 months (currently, 12), Mayfield has been working to interrupt that threshold, as well. Per Fowler, the forecasted value of the franchise tag for a quarterback next 12 months would bring him up from about $33.33MM per 12 months to around $47-48MM.
If Mayfield were to proceed playing at the extent he has been, negotiations after the tagged 12 months would only go up from there. This doesn’t necessarily change anything about where the 2 sides are at or make it tougher to achieve a brand new deal. If anything, it grants either side quite a bit more runway to land a deal each shall be satisfied with.
So long as Tampa Bay is willing to shoulder the hefty cap hit of the franchise tag and Mayfield is willing to proceed letting his play on the sector speak for him in negotiations, this might provide them with a couple of 12 months and a half more to barter. Considering either side feel fairly determined to increase their time together, it’s an inexpensive fallback plan.