The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have already re-signed wide receiver Mike Evans, which has led many to believe that a deal with quarterback Baker Mayfield will follow.
Well, that hasn’t happened yet, and with free agency starting on Monday, it doesn’t look like the two sides are going to agree to terms before Mayfield can officially test the market.
But there’s no need to panic for Buccaneers fans.
General manager Jason Licht spoke about Tampa Bay’s unsigned players on Friday, essentially saying that it’s all part of the process.
“A lot of [the team’s pending free agents] know what the market is at this point,” Licht said Friday, via Rick Stroud of The Tampa Bay Times. “I think the start of the negotiation period is really almost the same as the start of free agency, because they’re already talking and negotiating. So, as we get to Monday, any of our players that aren’t signed, it doesn’t mean they’re not coming back. It just means that maybe we’ve got an agreement that, hey, they’ll see what [their] worth [is]. We have a disagreement right now, and then let’s just try to work it out. We don’t want the player to be unhappy, either.”
Basically, Mayfield wants to see what other offers are out there first before he jumps and accepts whatever the Bucs are offering. It’s business, and it’s entirely understandable from Mayfield’s point of view.
More than likely, Mayfield will re-up with the Buccaneers. After all, he revitalized his career in Tampa this past season, throwing for 4,044 yards, 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions while completing 64.9 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 94.6. Most importantly, he led the Bucs to an NFC South division title and a playoff win.
Plus, the fact that Evans agreed to a new contract with the Buccaneers so quickly is an indication that he must know Mayfield is almost surely returning. It seems doubtful that he would bypass testing free agency if he wasn’t sure that Mayfield would be back in 2024.
While anything can happen, it’s probably only a matter of time before Baker Mayfield signs a new deal with Tampa Bay.
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