Jason Licht spoke with the media on Tuesday and once again, he was asked about negotiations between Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield.

His answer painted a clear picture of where things stand heading into the 2026 regular season.

“Well, we certainly respect him wanting to focus on the season [and] we’re focused on the season,” said Licht. “Once again, [I’ve] been here long enough to know that in this league, I don’t want to make predictions on what could happen, what will happen, what won’t happen.

“Right now, we’re all focused on, I’ve been waiting to say this for a long time: it’s on to Cincinnati.”

As Buccaneers fans know, Baker Mayfield set his own personal deadline at the beginning of training camp. He said that once camp rolled around, talks would shut down on his side. Sure enough, that’s what happened. Tampa Bay Times’ Rick Stroud asked the question, stating that according to what he has heard, there had been no communication between the two parties since.

And based on Licht’s answer, it doesn’t sound like anything will get done during the season.

However, as I’ve said in the past, that doesn’t mean the situation is completely shut down. For starters, there is no world in which the Buccaneers reach out to Mayfield’s agent with a deal that Mayfield and his agent would accept, and they say no simply because they did not reach the training camp deadline.

And, there’s always a chance Mayfield balls out during, let’s say, the first 8-10 weeks of the season and that prompts the Buccaneers to get something done ahead of the offseason before other suitors are potentially involved.

At the same time, it feels like the chances of either one of those scenarios coming to fruition are low. 

And that firmly places the ball in Baker Mayfield’s court.

Why this matters for the Buccaneers’ 2026 season

If there are no contract negotiations going on during the season, or if Tampa Bay does not present Mayfield and his crew with a respectable contract, then it’s going to be all up to Baker Mayfield and how he plays in accordance with what he receives from the Buccaneers or perhaps another team next year.

That’s a big deal because right now, the Buccaneers are still figuring out a lot of things on offense. The starting offense barely played during the preseason, logging only about six snaps as a unit, and there wasn’t a whole lot to take away from those reps. That’s fine in a vacuum because it’s the preseason, but it becomes more concerning when you combine it with the plethora of injuries Tampa Bay has suffered on the offensive side of the ball.

Jalen McMillan, Tristan Wirfs, Emeka Egbuka, the backup tackles, Cade Otton, Tez Johnson, and a few others all missed extended periods of time at various points during training camp. The result? The starting offense hasn’t been on the field together in one fell swoop all that often during camp and the preseason.

Even the game against the Chiefs featured Paul Rubelt starting at left tackle, with Ted Hurst, Kam Johnson, David Sills V representing the starters at receiver and Payne Durham the starter at tight end.

Execution is Baker Mayfield’s key word heading into Week 1

That could really hamper the Bucs’ offense in the early going as they try and find their footing as a starting unit. Sure, they all know the terminology. Mayfield even said after the Jaguars joint practice that he feels comfortable with where everybody’s at.

Now it’s about execution, and that’s the point: If these guys aren’t on the field together, gelling together, and figuring things out together, then it’s going to be hard for them to execute at a high level come Week 1 against the Cincinnati Bengals.

And let’s be honest: The Buccaneers are going to need the offense to step up against Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and the rest of Cincinnati’s crew.

So it creates a fascinating dynamic heading into the season. We all knew that Mayfield is more than comfortable betting on himself. That’s what he’s had to do his entire career. But now the door is officially open for him to do exactly that after Licht’s comments on Tuesday.

The question is whether the offense around him will be healthy and cohesive enough to let him prove his case.