The Bucs could be considering several contract extensions this offseason. All eyes are on Baker Mayfield as he enters the last year of his $100 million deal. The team could also invest in young pass rusher Yaya Diaby to try and get in front of an exploding edge market. Nose tackle Vita Vea has been a consistent presence in the middle of the Bucs defense for years and is also entering the final year of his 2021 extension.

But there’s another Bucs’ player who is entering the last year of his deal who deserves an extension. And I’d argue he should be a priority over those other three players.

Chase “Money” McLaughlin.

Chase McLaughlin’s Time With The Bucs

Since joining Tampa Bay in 2023 he has hit 91 of his 101 field goal attempts. That’s a 90.1% conversion rate. He’s 26 of 30 from beyond 50 yards (86.7%) with a long of 65 yards. He’s hit on 97.6% of his extra point attempts and scored 392 points. In those three short years McLaughlin has firmly planted himself towards the top of Tampa Bay’s record books. Here is where he ranks in franchise history across various statistics:

• Field goals – 6th (there’s a good chance he will move into 4th by the end of 2026)
• Field goal % – 1st
• 50-yard field goals – 1st
• Extra points – 7th (could move into 3rd by end of 2026)
• Points – 8th (could move into 3rd by end of 2026)

Bucs K Chase McLaughlin – Photo by: IMAGN Images – Nathan Ray Seebeck

It hasn’t taken the soft-spoken specialist very long to assert himself as one of the most reliable players on the team. And in that time, he has more than outplayed his contract.

McLaughlin’s Current Salary And Projected Contract

The Bucs will pay Chase McLaughlin $3.8 million this year. That makes him the ninth-highest paid kicker in the NFL in cash in 2026. He’s been one of the top five kickers in the league over the past three years. He led the NFL field goal conversion rate on attempts over 50 yards last year. And among kickers with at least 75 attempts since 2023 he’s 5th in conversion rate and 2nd in conversion rate on attempts of 50 yards or more.

That’s a good resume to push for an extension. And one that pays him at or near the top of the positional market. Here are some of his closest recent comps.

Averaging the entire sample creates a cap-adjusted APY of $5,501,920. Normally I would round that to the nearest hundred or ten thousand, but there is currently a glut of players around this mark and Cameron Dicker is fifth in pay at $5,501,000 with Evan McPherson sixth at $5,500,000. If McLaughlin takes the pure average, he will slot in just ahead of Dicker.

But he should push for more. Here’s a look at McLaughlin against the newest top paid kicker in the NFL – Ka’imi Fairbairn.

Fairbairn is the more consistent kicker, if even by the slimmest of margins over the larger sample sizes. McLaughlin is better from deep consistently across the board, but Fairbairn is coming off of the better season overall. I don’t think Chase’s camp can quite win the case for him to eclipse the Texans kicker. Consider this his ceiling. The deal he just signed was for $6.5 million per year. That gives him a $1 million range to work with. Putting him right in the center of that range at $6 million per year feels like a fair valuation for one of the quietly best kickers in the league.

At three years on the extension the new money would be $18 million and make the entire contract four years and $21.8 million for an effective APY of $5.45 million. The guaranteed money on the deal would most likely come in at $11 million. It would provide McLaughlin with a raise from his current $3.8 million to $5.5 million in 2026. That would push him up to the fourth highest paid kicker in the league this year.

It would make sense for the Bucs to get this done before the Cowboys and Brandon Aubrey redefine the kicker market altogether. And he’s certainly earned it.