SAD NEWS: Todd Robert Bowles salary has been reduced due…

So what will Tampa Bay pay Baker Mayfield?

It’s an important question unless you think Team Glazer will buy Todd Bowles a pastrami-on-rye sandwich and tell him he’s going to roll this season with a rookie quarterback, Kyle Trask and Jacoby Brisset.

Updated 2024 franchise tag numbers have been circulating this week and it seems the non-exclusive franchise tags for quarterbacks is a whopping $36.293 million for the one-year deal.

That’s a lot of warm, $12 beers at The Licht House.

(The “non-exclusive” tag is the common tag.)

The Bucs have until March 5 to use the tag on one player only.

Is it fair to say Mayfield will get the tag if he refuses to sign a multiyear contract? Yes, Joe believes that’s the case. However, that’s one fat, cap-swelling price that would set the Bucs up to rent a Brinks truck to pay Mayfield in 2025 and beyond if he had a strong 2024 season.

Perhaps it’s worth the money to see what the Bucs really have in Mayfield when he’s playing under the pressure of a massive contract and his handpicked a new offensive coordinator.

Joe thinks Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht is too savvy to screw up re-signing Mayfield. So Joe is not concerned.

And Joe also is confident Licht has a quality Plan B and C if Mike Evans decides he wants a change of scenery. There’s only one Evans, but there are special receivers to be had in free agency and the draft.