Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport X account this week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to SR each week via X using the hashtag #PRMailbag. Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: Why did we pay Baker Mayfield before the season?

ANSWER: Well, that’s a great question. I know the answer, but some Bucs fans might not want to hear it. The team was committed to making Baker Mayfield their long-term quarterback heading into the 2026 season, which was his contract year. So instead of letting Mayfield play out his contract year – which he was prepared to do despite him complaining about it in the media – the team decided to go ahead and sign him to a three-year contract extension. The thought was twofold.

First, Mayfield’s market value, in their estimation was $55 million per year heading into the season based on his three-year body of work. In other words, if Mayfield hit free agency in Week 1 of the NFL season there would be a quarterback-needy team that would have paid him $55 million per year, assuming it had the cap room to do so. If Mayfield balled out in 2026 and had a 2024-type of season, which was a career year, that number likely goes up to $60 million over three years, so the team looked at it like it was potentially saving somewhere around $15 million in new money.

Second, through Mayfield’s derogatory comments about the team in training camp, there was a narrative in the national media that the Bucs didn’t like. “How could the Bucs treat their franchise quarterback like this?” “Is this how the Bucs treat their star players?” “No wonder Mike Evans left!” And I think these national headlines on ESPN and Pro Football Talk and elsewhere grated on the team. This narrative, coupled with the team’s sincere desire to have Mayfield as its quarterback long term, led to the extension happening in September. The Bucs didn’t want it to linger throughout the season.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

But here’s the problem. The Bucs had all the leverage. Mayfield, who didn’t hold out this offseason or in training camp over his contract not getting extended, had already committed to playing this year. Plus, Tampa Bay was willing to use the franchise tag on Mayfield next offseason to buy even more time to get a multi-year extension done if necessary. The Bucs didn’t have to do this before the season.

Let me repeat that. The Bucs didn’t have to do this deal before the season. Yet everybody was on-board with this – the Glazers, general manager Jason Licht, assistant general manager Mike Greenberg and head coach Todd Bowles. I go into detail about this decision in a recent Pewter Pulse video.

Given what happened with Mayfield’s serious thumb injury on Sunday in the team’s third straight loss to start the 2026 season, that is why a team doesn’t give up – or shouldn’t give up – leverage when it comes to players and big, long-term contract extensions. By letting Mayfield play out his contract year, the Bucs had an escape route if they wanted to take it. If Mayfield got seriously injured or his play just never turned around in 2026, the Bucs did have the option of walking away in 2027. They could have taken a minimal dead cap hit and drafted another QB in 2027 or pursued on in free agency.

Instead, this team put its belief in Mayfield, and its blind faith in new offensive coordinator Zac Robinson that the quarterback would have a rebound year after an injury-riddled 2025 season. Now, there is no escape route, and it looks like a massive mistake in hindsight. The Bucs are married to Mayfield at least through 2027 due to guarantees. Cutting him after next year would be catastrophic in terms of the salary cap hit, and I’ll go into detail about that in my answer to the next question.

QUESTION: Please me that we can walk away from Baker Mayfield sooner rather than later. I’ve seen other teams do it despite taking a massive cap hit. He has been playing awful since last year and even before he hurt his thumb this offense was horrible during the 0-3 start.

ANSWER: I’m going to let Pewter Report’s resident salary cap expert Josh Queipo, who outlined what would happen from a salary cap standpoint if the Buccaneers had buyer’s remorse and wanted to cut bait on Baker Mayfield in his most recent Queipo’s Cover 4 column.

Baker Mayfield’s 2027 salary is fully guaranteed. Mayfield’s $50 million salary in 2027 is fully guaranteed. That means the Buccaneers are committed for the cash even if they cut Mayfield. For a team that spends just a bit over the cap each year in cash, that means the team would be punting about 15% of their cash paying a player not to play. Beyond that, they would need to make the decision before the fifth day of the 2027 league year as it pertains to 2028.

After that, $20 million of his 2028 salary would become fully guaranteed. But if they were to do that…

From a cap perspective they would have to designate Mayfield a post-June 1 cut while converting his roster bonus to a prorated bonus. That would make his cap hit in 2027 $26.795 million – all of which would be dead cap. The post-June 1 designation would let the team push the majority of his dead cap, $68.315 million, to 2028.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect

That’s a massive dead cap charge for the team to absorb. Over the two years it would total $95.110 million.

They could do it. And it wouldn’t be the largest dead cap hit a team has ever absorbed. It’s becoming more routine these days after the Broncos did it with Russell Wilson, the Falcons did it with Kirk Cousins, the Cardinals did it with Kyler Murray and the Dolphins did it with Tua Tagovailoa. But it’s still extremely out of character for the Buccaneers.

Unless Mayfield returns to action and suddenly rebounds and plays like the team was hoping and expecting him to play later this season, the Bucs have to put this option on the table. Over the past 12 games dating back to last year, the Bucs are 2-10 and Mayfield has completed 232-of-370 passes (62.7%) for 2,389 yards with 15 touchdowns, 11 interceptions and five fumbles during that span. Those are very mediocre quarterback numbers – not $55 million-per-year quarterback numbers.

QUESTION: The Glazers saved Todd Bowles last year because of injuries, that better not be the case this year as well. This is a bad football team – Baker Mayfield or no Baker Mayfield – and the empty stands are just gonna get worse if they keep him. What are your thoughts on this?

ANSWER: It’s true that the Glazers gave Todd Bowles a mulligan last year due to the sheer number of injuries that crippled this team during a very disappointing 8-9 season. But that can’t happen again – even if this team has to play a majority of the season without Baker Mayfield due to his thumb injury. It is clear – crystal clear – that Todd Bowles does not have the answers needed to stop the bleeding from these close losses that have dated back to last year’s bye week. Tampa Bay is 2-10 with their only wins during that span coming in a 20-17 win over the Cardinals and an 18-16 win over the Panthers.

In last two trips to the podium – last Wednesday and on Sunday after a 23-16 loss to the Vikings – Bowles looked like a man without answers. Anyone with eyes can see that.

Bowles is unpopular with fans – and that matters. While the Glazers might own the Buccaneers, their customers are the fans. The fans pay the bills in terms of ticket sales revenue, merchandise revenue, concessions revenue and parking revenue. Bucs fans are unhappy with Bowles and the team’s dreadful performance, and they are deciding to make their voices heard by not showing up for games. Ticket sales are way down this year, and when the Bucs didn’t fire Bowles at the end of the 2025 season, a lot of fans didn’t renew their season tickets.

Bucs vs. Vikings crowd at kickoff at Raymond James Stadium – Photo by: Scott Reynolds/PR

There were at least 20,000 empty seats at last week’s home opener against the Browns, which had to stun the Glazers, and likely at least 15,000 empty seats on Sunday. While it helps the Glazers from a gate revenue standpoint, the amount of enormous amount of Vikings fans that invaded Raymond James Stadium literally made Sunday’s crowd 50-50. Next week the Bucs will lose any potential homefield advantage to the Packers fans, which will outnumber Bucs fans, which is something that hasn’t happened in Tampa Bay since the Bucs and the Packers were both in the NFC Central – back when this team was the Yuccaneers.

The Glazers didn’t hire Bowles to be a great guy, which is he, or a great leader of men, which he has been on occasion. They – like all NFL owners – hired Bowles to win games. That’s it. This game is about winning. If you win enough games you get to stay. If you don’t win enough games, you get fired. That’s the name of the game. At 35-36 thanks to Sunday’s loss, Bowles once again has a losing record in Tampa Bay and he’s trending the wrong way.

More importantly, Bowles’ team has not played well in ages it seems. This team has a lot of players with talent who aren’t playing up to their potential. Ultimately, that’s a head coach’s job – to get the team to play up to its potential, put the players in the best position possible to excel, and of course, win games. It’s clear that Bowles is not doing that. The Glazers cannot let this situation continue past 2027 if the losing continues – with or without Mayfield.

QUESTION: I know there are 14 games remaining, but does this team draft a QB with a top 5 pick and a $165 million Baker Mayfield contract staring them in the face?

ANSWER: The Atlanta Falcons signed Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million contract in 2024 and then stunned the NFL when they drafted quarterback Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth overall pick a month later. So it can be done. Through three games the Bucs and the Texans are the league’s only 0-3 teams. Right now the Bucs would have the No. 1 overall pick if the 2027 NFL Draft were to happen right now.

So drafting a potential franchise quarterback has to be on the table, especially if Mayfield has trouble staying healthy and/or cannot regain his form from the 2024 season and the first five games of the 2025 campaign. Mayfield will be 32 next year, which isn’t ancient when it comes to NFL quarterbacks, but he’s also not young either. NFL players don’t typically get better with age and who knows what the future holds for Mayfield in terms of his on-field performance. It hasn’t been good for quite some time now.

QUESTION: I’ve disconnected my feelings from this year’s team. I knew without a doubt we needed to make a change at head coach. We fired Tony Dungy for less! I’ll watch from my living room – if I have nothing else going on. Love my Bucs, been a fan since ’76, but it’s not worth my health. Go Rays! Go Bolts!

ANSWER: You’re not alone in your thinking. I called for Todd Bowles to be fired after the 2025 season, but the Glazers just love the guy and want him to succeed at all costs. Not only could they have had Liam Coen after the 2024 season if they had been bold enough to fire Bowles after his defense didn’t record a takeaway or force a punt in the Wild Card loss to Washington, but they could have hired Todd Monken this past offseason had they fired Bowles. Before becoming the Browns head coach Monken interviewed for the vacant offensive coordinator job that was ultimately filled by Zac Robinson.

Don’t look now, but Monken’s Browns are 2-1 after beating Bowles and the Bucs in Week 2 and Dave Canales and the Panthers in Week 3. The fiery Monken, who is 60, looks like he may be the second coming of Bruce Arians – an offensive genius who can coach the heck out of quarterbacks and is finally getting a shot at being a head coach later in his career.

Browns HC Todd Monken and Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

This past offseason the Bills made a bold move and fired Sean McDemott after multiple winning seasons in Buffalo and promoted offensive coordinator Joe Brady to replace him. The Bills couldn’t get over the hump and get to the Super Bowl under McDermott. Now they’ve started the season 3-0.

The late Malcolm Glazer made the bold move to fire Tony Dungy, the man who turned the Yuccaneers into the Buccaneers, after making the playoffs at 9-7 but failing to get out of the first round of the postseason in back-to-back years in 2000 and 2001. Then he made an even bolder move in trading two first-round picks and two second-round picks plus sending $8 million in cash to the Raiders for Jon Gruden, who won a Super Bowl in his first season in Tampa Bay.

Where has the Glazers’ boldness gone? Bucs fans would love to know.

QUESTION: If they’re not going to fire Todd Bowles then what are the odds Zac Robinson gets the axe in a desperation move? Thanks, and glad I’m not covering this disaster as my job.

ANSWER: Firing offensive coordinator Zac Robinson is not going to happen for a couple of reasons. First, Todd Bowles didn’t fire special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey in-season when he should have last year. I doubt that he does that with Robinson. Who would call plays if he did – quarterbacks coach Chandler Whitmer? Is he up to the task?

Senior offensive assistant Ken Zampese or pass game coordinator T.J. Yates? Zampese has some experience calling plays, but I just don’t see Bowles making a bold move like this. Bowles doesn’t panic – yet perhaps he should after the team’s 0-3 start with the offense looking like a disaster through three games.

Bucs OC Zac Robinson and HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Keep in mind that if Bowles fires Robinson, his hand-picked guy, during the year then Bowles is admitting he screwed up. For a coach on the hot seat, that’s not a great look. After getting credit for hiring Dave Canales and Liam Coen in back-to-back years only to see them leave and become head coaches after just one season, Bowles’ two recent hires have not fared as well. Josh Grizzard was fired after last year, and after arriving with high hopes, Robinson’s offense looks even worse for some reason.

Granted the offensive line has played poorly despite having all five starters from the 2024 season back healthy. Now having Baker Mayfield injured with his dislocated them only complicates things.

QUESTION: SR, this O-line was considered top 5 the last time they played together in 2024 as a unit. Now they are atrocious. Why have they regressed? Too many penalties. They really aren’t good in the run game either, as Bucky Irving has made up for it with his elusiveness. What changed?

ANSWER: I wish I knew, and I’m not the only one who wishes that. General manager Jason Licht, head coach Todd Bowles, offensive coordinator Zac Robinson and offensive line coach Kevin Carberry have to be scratching their heads right now over how poorly the offensive line has played this year. It’s been stunningly bad how many pressures and sacks they’ve surrendered through three games.

Baker Mayfield has been sacked 13 times and pressured 38 times, according to Pro Football Focus. Although PFF only attributes seven sacks to the offensive line with Mayfield getting tagged for six of his own sacks by holding on to the ball too long. Left tackle Tristan Wirfs has been credited with two sacks, as has left guard Ben Bredeson, who has been the worst up front. Bredeson has also given up 10 pressures, which is tied for the most on the team with right guard Cody Mauch, who has also given up a sack.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield, LG Ben Bredeson and C Graham Barton – Photo by: IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect

The offensive line had five costly penalties in Sunday’s loss to the Vikings. Mauch was flagged twice for holding with center Graham Barton and right tackle Luke Goedeke each getting called for holding. Wirfs was flagged for illegal formation. Yet it was Goedeke’s penalty that stung the most, negating an 85-yard touchdown catch by Chris Godwin in the third quarter.

Assistant offensive line coach Brian Picucci left Tampa Bay for Jacksonville this offseason. He was Liam Coen’s hand-picked offensive line coach as the two worked together at the University of Kentucky. Carberry got a lot of the credit for the offensive line’s success in 2024, but was Picucci really the guy with the secret sauce? Who knows?

Say a prayer for Jalon Daniels, who has to play behind this offensive line this Sunday against Green Bay with Mayfield almost assuredly out of action.