Bucs Insider Rick Stroud on the Risk/Reward of Tampa Extending Baker Mayfield

Rick Stroud covers the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times, which means he has watched Baker Mayfield turn perceived disrespect into fuel more than once. So when Rich asked him how Mayfield is handling a training camp with no new contract, Stroud did not sound worried about the quarterback.

"I think this is where Baker lives," Stroud said. "I really do."

He walked through the history to make the point. Mayfield arrived in Tampa on a one-year, four million dollar prove-it deal, with what Stroud called "some pseudo competition with Kyle Trask who's out of the league now." Mayfield embraced it and lit it up. The next year brought the three-year, hundred million dollar deal that finally gave him security.

What Stroud cannot square is why the two sides have not gotten this one done.

"He loves Tampa, Rich," Stroud said. "He said he wants to make this his forever home whether he plays here or not. The fan base absolutely loves him. I think the ownership loves him. I know that the players do, and I know that Jason Licht and those guys do."

His frustration is basically a logic problem. "Usually when you have two sides that want the same thing, you can work it out." Stroud believes Mayfield made concessions on the number of years. Something about the valuation still has the front office stuck.

Then Stroud planted his own flag, and it is the kind of line that gets a Bucs fan out of their chair.

"You either got a guy or you don't. And you can win a Super Bowl with Baker Mayfield. I believe that. We saw Sam Darnold do it."

The caveat is the rest of the roster. Tampa's defense, in Stroud's blunt assessment, "was horrible last year." The team has revamped it and hired new coaches on that side of the ball. If they can protect Mayfield, Stroud thinks he can take them a long way.

None of which changes the fact that the negotiating window looks shut. Rich pushed on whether this is truly done between now and week one, since Mayfield said it was done and Mayfield is a man of his word.

Stroud kept the standard insider escape hatch open and then made clear he does not expect to use it. "You never say never, but I do think that's Baker's mentality. I feel like when he set that deadline, that that was it."

What Stroud is actually curious about is the locker room. He wonders aloud what happens when those guys get together and start doing the math on a summer that has not gone their way. Mayfield without an extension. Mike gone. And Vita Vea's situation hanging over the defense.

That last one is the piece Stroud clearly considers the real problem. He pointed to something Todd Bowles told him last preseason, that there is exactly one player on the defense he cannot plug a replacement in for.

"That's Vita Vea," Stroud said. "It's been a bumpy start to the season, but they'll pull it together."

Bumpy is doing some work there. But Stroud's read on Mayfield is the throughline, and it is worth remembering how the guy got here in the first place. Walk-on at Texas Tech. Walk-on at Oklahoma. Heisman winner.

"He bets on himself all the time, right?" Stroud said. "This is where he feels the most comfortable sometimes."