The Buzz Surrounding Baker Mayfield In 2025 fasterkora.xyz

Let’s put the spotlight on Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield.

With the 2024 season firmly in the rearview mirror and the pre-draft process, free agency, the draft itself, OTAs and mini-camp also behind us, it’s time to ramp up the excitement for training camp and then, of course, the Bucs’ 50th season. As we did last summer, we’ll spend the weeks leading up to training camp focusing on some storylines and narratives surrounding some of Tampa Bay’s biggest stars in 2025.

Today, of course, we start with Baker Mayfield.

How High Can Baker Mayfield Climb Among Bucs’ All-Time Leaders?

The Bucs don’t have an illustrious history in terms of quarterbacks. That’s certainly no secret.

But it’s still pretty impressive that Baker Mayfield is already well within range of cementing himself as one of the most prolific passers in franchise history. Through two seasons in Tampa Bay, he has thrown for 8,544 yards and 69 touchdowns. Those 8,544 passing yards are the ninth-most of any Buccaneer quarterback, while the 69 passing touchdowns are good for seventh-most in team history.

So, how high can Mayfield climb by the end of 2025?

Bucs LT Tristan Wirfs and QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

If he keeps with the pace he’s set over his first two seasons in red and pewter, Mayfield will end his third campaign with the Bucs at 12,816 passing yards and 103 passing touchdowns. That would place him sixth all-time in passing yards and third all-time in passing touchdowns. Even if we’re more conservative with his projected stats and he’s slightly behind the pace he’s set between 2023 and 2024, he’s still within range of those places among the other quarterbacks in franchise history.

As it stands right now, Mayfield is 40 touchdowns away from passing the 108 that Tom Brady posted over his three-year tenure in Tampa. And with 53 passing touchdowns, Mayfield will become the all-time leader, passing Jameis Winston’s 121. With another big season in 2025, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see No. 6 enter the 2026 season within striking distance of the franchise’s all-time record.

With the level of talent he has around him, Mayfield is set up for a whole lot of success in 2025. The core of Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Jalen McMillan, Emeka Egbuka, Bucky Irving, Rachaad White and Cade Otton is up there among the best in the NFL, and the Tampa Bay offensive line is back together again this season and will once again be one of the better units in the league.

There’s reason to believe Mayfield could put up NFL MVP-caliber numbers. But how quickly the offense adjusts under new coordinator Josh Grizzard as well as the consistency of Mayfield himself will determine what his final stat line looks like.

Nonetheless, by the end of 2025, Mayfield should be firmly among the top passers in Bucs history. There’s already an argument to be made that he’s up there, but he should soon have the statistics to back that up. The only question is how high he can climb over the 17-game regular season.

Will Baker Mayfield Set Himself Up For A Big-Money Extension In 2026?

Pewter Report’s Josh Queipo wrote earlier this offseason about why a contract extension was unlikely to come Baker Mayfield’s way this offseason. But at the end of that article, Queipo left us with the following:

“The more likely path is that the two sides revisit an extension in 2026.”

So, as much as Mayfield has already accomplished in 2024 to make his three-year, $100 million deal look like a bargain, he has a chance to build on that in 2025. He also has a chance to set himself up for quite the big-money contract extension in 2026.

As it stands, the 2026 season would be a contract year for Tampa Bay’s signal-caller. But with yet another big season leading the way for the Buccaneer offense, he would put himself in a great position to get paid before that contract year arrives.

Bucs GM Jason Licht and QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by Cliff Welch P/R

With the information available right now, there’s incentive for both sides to get a deal done before 2026 rather than having Mayfield play out his contract year. Over his first two seasons with the Bucs, Mayfield has put up back-to-back Pro Bowl seasons and kept the team’s streak of NFC South titles and playoff appearances intact. He’s cemented himself as Tampa Bay’s franchise quarterback, and he only just turned 30 years old in April. For the Bucs, they can reward their franchise guy with another contract extension, locking him in for even longer.

For Mayfield, it would be a chance to keep a good thing going. He revived his career in Tampa on a one-year, $4 million deal in 2023 and then signed a three-year deal in 2024. He’s talked about finally having a real home at the NFL level, and he’s been well taken care of in terms of the team providing talent in front of him and around him. So, why not cash in when the chance arises?

What Mayfield’s 2025 looks like could obviously play a major role in what that new contract extension could look like. If he has another Pro Bowl season and the Bucs make the playoffs under his leadership again, he’ll be set up to make some big money. If it’s an MVP-caliber season that he puts together, he’ll make even bigger money. And if he can take Tampa Bay to an NFC Championship Game or even the Super Bowl? There will be no choice but to reward him with a massive deal that keeps him in red and pewter for a long time to come.

Can Baker Mayfield Take The Bucs To A Championship?

The Bucs have high expectations entering 2025, and who can blame them? Tampa Bay has the longest active streak of playoff appearances in the NFC at five years, plus it has won the NFC South in four consecutive seasons. The team has also gone from eight wins to nine wins to 10 wins in the first three years of Todd Bowles’ tenure, and the 2025 squad looks to be the most talented one the organization has fielded since 2021.

One of the realities of football is that the bulk of expectations and pressure are ultimately placed on the shoulders of the quarterback. So, yes, there’s a lot riding on Baker Mayfield this year as the Bucs look to not only five-peat as division champions but also make a run deeper into the playoffs.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

There’s no question that Mayfield has it in him to lead Tampa Bay to a deep playoff run. He’s certainly capable of doing so, but until he does it, there’s bound to be a certain narrative boiling under the surface. Mayfield has two playoff wins to his name right now, having earned one in January of 2021 with Cleveland – the franchise’s first postseason win since 1994 – before picking up a Wild Card win in his first campaign as Tampa Bay’s quarterback in January of 2024. But he has yet to make it past the Divisional Round. Can he do that for the first time in 2025?

There’s an argument to be made that for Mayfield and the Bucs, this season is going to be their best chance at making a deep run in the playoffs – one that carries into the NFC Championship Game and potentially even the Super Bowl. Because while the core of this year’s squad largely remains intact beyond this year, this is a team that will likely be without Lavonte David in 2026. Mike Evans should be back on a new deal if he wants to keep playing, but he’ll be another year closer to the end of his career at age 33. The same goes for Chris Godwin, who will be 30 heading into the 2026 season.

The Bucs may not be the favorite in the NFC, but they should be an upper-tier team. The defending Super Bowl champion Eagles may be the favorite, and the Rams are going to be up there in the conversation as well. The Lions, Packers and potentially even the Vikings will be in the mix as well. So, it’ll be tough to make a run, but the way this Buccaneer team is constructed, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be a top contender in the conference.

Mayfield will have to play at a high level throughout the season, yes, but also come through in clutch time when the playoffs roll around. He can’t afford to throw two interceptions like he did in the NFC Divisional Round two seasons ago, and it may take more than the 185 passing yards and two touchdowns he had in the Wild Card Round this past season.

That may sound harsh and even a little unfair, but as much as it’ll be on everyone in that locker room to take the team to the NFC title game and beyond, the quarterback himself will have to provide some heroics and play some true championship-caliber ball when it matters the most.