The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have now secured two of their big name pending free agents to multi-year extensions, and this one is arguably the most important.
Baker Mayfield has agreed to a three-year, $100 million deal with the potential to earn up to $115 million total in incentives, according to Adam Schefter, who says Baker confirmed the deal and heaped praise upon “coach Bowles and the staff,” while expressing his desire to “win more in the postseason.”
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The contract is only guaranteed up to $50 million, with $30 million coming in year one and $20 million coming in year two if the Bucs decide to part ways with the former No. 1 overall pick.
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Mayfield led the Buccaneers to a division title and playoff victory last year and looks poised to run it back with mostly the same cast of characters; Mike Evans was recently signed to a two-year, $41 million deal (a bit smaller than what the initial reports had the total dollar amount being), and no other big names on the offensive side of the ball are free agents.
Bucs General Manager Jason Licht can now turn his attention to convincing veteran linebacker Lavonte David to return to Tampa on another one-year deal, giving star safety Antoine Winfield, Jr. an extension (the latter is currently franchise tagged), and making any other moves to bolster the Bucs 2024-25 roster via the draft or free agency.
But re-signing Mayfield was arguably the biggest domino, even if it wasn’t entirely unexpected; the two sides had been talking about each other in quite a fond fashion, fawning over how they were yearning to reunite and give each other the love and support they deserve.
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Ok, maybe it wasn’t quite that lovey-dovey, but both sides were obviously interested in maintaining each other’s company, and now they get to do so for three more years, assuming things continue to go well.
If you were wondering about why things were taking so long, well, that makes two of us. But no longer will Bucs fans have to think about trading for Justin Fields or (barf) Mac Jones (he’s now a Jaguar anyways, thank goodness), Baker’s here. Everything’s going to be alright.
So fire those offseason cannons again, because the Bucs keep their man.
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This article originally appeared on CLTAMPA.COM and is used with permission.
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