While Baker Mayfield has not gotten off to a great start since signing his three-year extension, the quarterback can rest assured about security due to the guarantees in his contract. The Buccaneers’ three-year, $165MM Mayfield deal included $70MM guaranteed at signing, and early trigger dates position the quarterback well beyond 2027.

After fully guaranteeing Mayfield’s 2026 and ’27 compensation at signing, the deal will shift a $20MM injury guarantee on Mayfield’s $50MM 2028 salary to a full guarantee on Day 5 of the 2027 league year, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio notes. The rest of that money locks in on Day 5 of the 2028 league year. No early guarantee mechanism is in place for 2029, though Florio adds a $2.5MM roster bonus is due on Day 5 of that league year.

It is notable the Bucs included a $50MM base salary for 2028. That would make a trade — from a dead money perspective, at least — easier, as the deal is not flooded with void years and signing bonus money. An acquiring team would, absent a salary split agreement, need to take on Mayfield’s 2028 base salary if a deal materializes before then. The Bucs are counting on their fourth-year starter bouncing back from an injury-plagued 2025, as Todd Bowles’ seat is certainly warming after this 0-2 start.

Here is the latest from the NFC South:

• Staying on the subject of this division’s QBs, Michael Penix Jr.’s Thursday-night outing brought grim prospects of Tua Tagovailoa — the Falcons’ anointed starter before a pre-Week 1 injury changed plans — reacquiring that job. Kevin Stefanski had said in the leadup to the Falcons’ Week 3 blowout win over the Packers that Penix was poised to “pull everything together” for the offense, The Exhibit’s Josina Anderson notes. Overmatched in two games without their top two QBs, Atlanta steamrolled Green Bay behind a 256-yard passing outing from Penix. Stefanski’s interview for the Falcons’ HC job featured plans for how the ex-Browns leader could further develop Penix, and while the veteran HC then declared an open competition for the job once the team signed Tagovailoa, the free agency addition did not impress in the preseason and earned the starting nod after a competition that barely featured Penix work due to the latter’s ACL rehab.
• Other teams have narrowed the gap, but the Saints may still be the NFL’s restructure kingpins. New Orleans redid three deals to create cap space recently. The team adjusted the contracts of guard Cesar Ruiz and defensive linemen Davon Godchaux and Nathan Shepherd. The moves created just more than $13MM in cap space, per OverTheCap and Spotrac. The Saints hold just more than $7MM in space entering Week 3. Following the Ruiz move, New Orleans’ restructure-laden payroll only has one cap number (Alvin Kamara’s $11.39MM figure) over $11MM in 2026; though, future hits spiked for the above-referenced linemen as a result of these reworkings.
• Staying on the restructure front, the Panthers adjusted Tershawn Wharton’s deal recently as well. The team created $9.7MM in cap space via this adjustment, per Spotrac, while adding three void years to the contract. Wharton is tied to a three-year, $45.1MM deal. The D-lineman is on Carolina’s reserve/PUP list after offseason neck surgery. This adjustment ballooned his 2027 cap number past $22MM. The Panthers would be faced with a $14.6MM dead money hit if they cut Wharton in 2027.
• Rounding out the recent restructures in this division, the Falcons adjusted Chris Lindstrom’s deal. Making sense as a restructure candidate due to his production to date, Lindstrom saw (via OverTheCap) $14.7MM of his 2026 salary converted to a signing bonus. This created $11.76MM in cap space for the Falcons, who have the All-Pro guard tied to a $20.5MM-per-year deal — one that curiously (thanks to Matthew Bergeron’s offseason extension) is no longer the top guard accord on Atlanta’s payroll.
• Za’Darius Smith is off to a nice start with the Falcons, registering 2.5 sacks over his first two games. The 34-year-old pass rusher unretired this offseason and signed a one-year, $6MM deal that included $5MM at signing. A Falcons team desperate for EDGE help following Jalon Walker’s injury and James Pearce Jr.’s eight-game suspension signed Smith, who explained his brief retirement recently. Smith left the Eagles to be with his dying mother last October, also losing his father and grandfather last year. This is Smith’s 12th NFL season, and the Falcons are team No. 7 for the experienced edge rusher.