Is Baker 'definitely that guy' among NFL's QBs?
The Dan Le Batard Show reacts to Baker Mayfield 's comments regarding his contract stalemate with the Tampa Bay Bucs and if he is among the NFL's top QBs.
Video Transcript
Set a deadline and tell the team that, "Past this deadline, it's gonna be all about ball," and then you get up in front of the microphone and you talk about how disrespected you've been.
It i- it, it is great.
And the thing with Baker Mayfield that's striking is, is he definitely that guy?
Is he, is he, getting over his skis about who Baker Mayfield is in the quarterback league and where he ranks among those quarterbacks?
Yeah, you know, it's usually a thing you hear from the team side is, "We gotta go all ball here.
It's all about team and it's about the season, and that's why we cut off..." Some teams do that, in fact, like, once we get to camp or once we get close enough to the regular season, no more negotiating.
So it's funny that the player would, would do that, and now the team is sort of like, "Sorry, Bake, we, we wish we could continue negotiations, but you don't wanna."
I mean, he wants to be paid over 50, $55 million a year.
He wants to be paid like one of the elite quarterbacks in the league, and I would say he's not one of the elite quarterbacks in the league.
He's good, but that's where you're in this weird spot, man- Mm-hmm where all these quarterbacks, they want to be paid in the top seven, eight, nine, whatever it is, in the league.
And if the team doesn't feel that you're in that elite tier, they offer you likely whatever the Bucs offered him.
Because here's the thing, the Bucs apparently made a couple of different offers, and the weird thing is, it's not like Like, Baker is disrespected.
He feels disrespected.
He doesn't like the deal that the team has given him.
And it comes off to me, Dave, where it's like unless the team gives you It- there's no negotiation, 'cause if the team doesn't give you what you want, then it's disrespectful.
Anything less than exactly what you want is disrespectful.
And I say that because it's not like the Buccaneers came into the negotiating table like, "We're offering you 10 million a year."
I'm sure that's not what they were offering him.
I'm sure they were offering him a respectable contract, which is definitely below what he wants.
But it's like anytime it's l- it's, it's not the contract that you want, apparently it's disrespectful.
It's like the player, it's always business, right?
And when the team looks at it and says, "Hey, this is business here.
These guys are paid what they're paid 'cause they're at this level.
We think you're at this level."
"Oh, no, you're disrespecting me."
No, no, no, we're doing business here, and any time that the player doesn't get what he wants, it's always personal.
It's disrespectful.
I hear you.
And I, I think in my head it goes to where the Buccaneers may perceive him to rank among his peer group.
But of course, what Baker Mayfield understands is, "What are you gonna do if, if I disappear?"
You cannot Whether or not you can pick apart, "Well, Bake, as a franchise, we're looking at you versus the very best, or where you stand among the very best, and do we see you among that?"
That's not really the conversation if you're Baker Mayfield's side of this sort of thing.
"You wanna go out into the abyss without me?
Do you remember what was going on before me?
You had to go and, and, scrape around, and then you got the old man Tom Brady.
And then after that, where would you be without Bake, o- old Bake here?
Don't you think that there is some sort of, so- some sort of payout for how I've transitioned us out of the Brady into where we are?
We're relevant in the playoff chase going into 2026.
Largely-" I mean, they win eight, nine games every year.
Right?
You know?
They're not, they're not a great team.
They, they win the It's the worst division in football, and they're routinely winning it with nine wins.
I don't know, it's not that i- And by the way, he wasn't great last year.
Like, the, the amazing year he had was two years ago.
He wasn't great last year.
Right.
Well, and, and then that points to Mike Evans, who Mike Evans has, for whatever, attribute you would place with any other pass catcher in the league, Mike Evans has a pretty consistent sort of track record going back to Johnny Football at A&M.
He's one of those cats who makes quarterbacks better than they otherwise might be.
And so maybe, I bet the Bucs are kind of looking at this, "Can we get through this season and consider tagging Bake for $50 million in the off-season?
Because we wanna see what he looks like without the Hall of Fame wide receiver named Mike Ev-
