NFL Exec Gives Buccaneers Suggeston for Mayfield Contract

NFL Exec Gives Buccaneers Suggeston for Mayfield Contract

Baker Mayfield's contract situation will be one of the biggest storylines surrounding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for a while, and one NFL executive has a suggestion for what the Bucs should do with their quarterback.

Speaking anonymously with NFL insider Jason La Canfora, an anonymous "longtime personnel executive" said that the Bucs should offer Mayfield a deal similar to the one the Seattle Seahawks gave their QB, Sam Darnold.

Last March, the Seahawks signed Darnold, who was a free agent, to a $3 year, $100.5 million deal with $55 million in guaranteed money.

Mayfield is entering the last year of a similar deal: three years, $100 million with $50 million guaranteed.

Less than a year after signing Darnold, the Seahawks won the Super Bowl.

"I think there are some similarities with the players," the executive told La Canfora. "You worry about the interceptions, can they get you over the top? It’s not totally similar, and Darnold was on the market, and this is an extension. That’s the structure I would be looking at."

Darnold ended last season with 25 touchdown passes, 14 interceptions and 4,048 yards.

Mayfield had one more touchdown pass and three fewer interceptions, but threw for fewer yards at 3,693.

This is hardly the first time Mayfield and Darnold have been linked together. They were the top two quarterbacks taken in the 2018 draft, with Mayfield going first overall to the Cleveland Browns and Darnold going two picks later to the New York Jets.

Neither one of them became franchise saviors for the team that drafted them.

Mayfield was with the Browns for four seasons, and although there were highlights, such as Mayfield quarterbacking the team to its first playoff win in more than a quarter-century in 2021, the team decided to move on from him in favor of , a decision that Mayfield is