News that Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield agreed to a contract extension on Tuesday came as a surprise to many people and the news that talks were even going was the source of an earlier surprise to Mayfield.
Mayfield had set a deadline of the first day of training camp to hammer out a new deal and said he felt “undervalued” by the offers from the team after arriving to camp without an agreement in place. At a press conference on Wednesday, Mayfield shared that the groundwork for the deal was done without his knowledge and that the final steps came together quickly.
“I told my agent, ‘I’m done talking about it unless something really changes, If you think that I’m really willing to agree to it then bring it to my attention,’” Mayfield said. “Apparently, they reengaged in talks last week that I did not hear about until Monday at around 6 p.m.”
Mayfield said it was “awesome” to have the three-year extension finished and that he won’t need the contract to serve as motivation for the coming season.
“It’s not going to be looming over everybody, questioning it day in and day out throughout the weeks,” Mayfield said. “For me, it doesn’t change. We didn’t make the playoffs last year. I think everybody that was here has a bad taste in their mouth and they’re ready to right the ship on that.”
That process begins against the Bengals on Sunday and the Bucs will be hoping to see Mayfield show exactly why they moved to commit to him into the future.
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