Buccaneers offered Baker Mayfield a two-year extension
· Yahoo Sports
Thursday's surprising decision by Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield to publicly peel back the curtain on the details of his contract talks with the team created several questions.
Here's one: Did the Buccaneers offer him a "two-year deal" or did they offer him a two-year extension to his existing contract, making it a three-year deal?
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Mayfield has reportedly characterized it as a two-year deal. Per a source with knowledge of the situation, it was a two-year extension.
It's a subtle but significant point. Mayfield believes he was "disrespected." An offer of a two-year deal seems less respectful to a reasonable person with no skin in the game than an offer of a three-year deal.
ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported that the Buccaneers ultimately offered Mayfield "a two-year deal worth slightly above $100 million in total." While not mentioned in the ESPN article, this necessarily means it was a two-year extension; given the manner in which veteran contracts are analyzed, a two-year, $100 million deal would have a "new-money" average of $72.5 million, based on the "old money" of $27.5 million.
That's where the disconnect may be coming from. Mayfield may be looking at the offer in total average from signing, and the Bucs may be looking at new-money average. In this specific case, a two-year extension worth more than $100 million has a new-money APY of more than $50 million. The three-year deal would have a real average from signing of $42.5 million.
While none of it apparently matters at this point, given the lingering impasse that Mayfield currently has no desire to attempt to resolve, it underscores the reality that teams and players often interpret contract offers very differently. Mayfield's goal is to get the fans to agree that he was indeed "disrespected" and "undervalued." Characterizing the Buccaneers' offer as a two-year "deal" and not a two-year "extension" is one way to tip public opinion his way.
Will it work? In a question of laundry versus person wearing the laundry, the fans typically get behind the laundry. And if the ultimate fight is whether the contract will have a value from signing that is closer to $50 million than $40 million, most fans won't be persuaded to alter their habit of rooting for the laundry.