There is no shortage of free agents for Tampa Bay to consider this offseason, but no question, none is more important than the Buccaneers’ Baker Mayfield.

After signing a make-good contract last offseason, Mayfield did, in fact, make good, leading the Buccaneers into the playoffs as he racked up 4,044 yards passing with 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He also had a 94.6 quarterback rating, and added 686 yards, 6 touchdowns and 2 interceptions in two playoff games.

This is a guy the Buccaneers want to bring back to Tampa. And, as NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport noted, they’ve got the inside track on doing so.

“The Bucs kind of have the leg up on everyone,” Rapoport said this week. “He’s not a restricted free agent, right? It’s not like they have the opportunity to match. But the Bucs having the offensive coordinator he’s been with in Liam Coen, having these weapons and the head coach that he’s familiar with is obviously a really big deal.”

From Super Bowl Live: The #Bucs have the inside track to re-sign QB Baker Mayfield.

Buccaneers Baker Mayfield Could Start March 5
The fun on Mayfield figures to begin, Rapoport said, on March 5. That’s when teams can begin franchise-tagging players, and that should be the start of getting Mayfield a new deal with the Buccaneers.

“I think the first deadline for the Baker Mayfield situation is the franchise-tag window,” Rapoport said. “Franchise tagging Baker Mayfield certainly could be a way to keep him there, but what they also could do is say, ‘You know what, the franchise tag number is here, let’s do a contract based on that, let’s just do it a little early.’ Lock up their quarterback potentially for the future and move on from there.”

Indeed, the Buccaneers struck gold on Mayfield, having inked him to an incentive-laden deal that started at just $4 million. But to keep Mayfield, they’ll have to come up to a more standard level of quarterback salaries.

At OverTheCap.com, the projected franchise tag level is $35.9 million for quarterbacks. It could be worthwhile, though, for the Bucs to work on a long-term deal with a lesser up-front price tag. Mayfield is projected to get a four-year deal worth $108.4 million ($27.1 million per year) by Spotrac, and projected for a three-year deal worth $75 million ($25 million per year) at Pro Football Focus.

Liam Coen Worked with Baker in L.A.
Either way, a long term deal at less than the franchise tag would make sense for the Buccaneers, who seem to have lined up their future with Mayfield in mind. When offensive coordinator Dave Canales left to become head coach of the Panthers last month, he was replaced by the Rams’ Liam Coen, who had worked with Mayfield briefly in Los Angeles in 2022.

But Coen said that the Buccaneers keeping Mayfield was one of the attractions of the job for him.

“He’s an ignitor and that’s the type of guy that you want to be around,” Coen said after he was hired, per ESPN.com. “He came into our [Rams] organization at a really difficult time. A time [when] we weren’t having a lot of fun. He came in and made football fun for a lot of people at that time. He came in and made football competitive again at practice, and he’s jawing at [cornerback] Jalen Ramsey, and they’re going at it. That was something we [had not] felt in a little while, right?”