What Is Baker Mayfield's Net Worth and Salary?
Baker Mayfield is an American professional football player who has a net worth of $20 million. After winning the Heisman trophy as the quarterback for the Oklahoma Sooners, Baker Mayfield was the first overall draft pick of the Cleveland Browns in the 2018 NFL Draft. Upon joining the Browns in 2018, Baker received a $21.8 million signing bonus. Including that bonus, Mayfield made just under $50 million in his first six NFL seasons alone. Unfortunately, as we explain in the next section, Baker experienced a significant financial controversy in 2023.
2024 Contract
In March 2024, Baker and Tampa Bay signed a 3-year, $100 million contract that could be worth up to $115 million with incentives and has $50 million worth of guaranteed money.
Alleged Investment Loss
On August 19, 2023, it was revealed that Baker had filed a petition in a court in Austin, Texas, to demand financial records from an investment firm covering the years 2018 to 2023. The petition also demanded depositions from investment managers at six companies. Awkwardly, two of those companies were founded by Baker's father James Mayfield. In the petition Baker sought to uncover what happened to $12 million he invested with the firms. The petition said that Baker does not know "if their money has been properly and competently invested, has been stolen or otherwise misappropriated, or something in between."
During the years in question, 2018 to 2023, Baker grossed a little more than $50 million. After taxes and fees, that would have been reduced to $20 million. So if $12 million was truly stolen or lost inappropriately, that equates to 60% of his total net earnings.
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Early Life
Baker Reagan Mayfield was born on April 14, 1995, in Austin, Texas. He is the son of Gina and James Mayfield, and he has an older brother. Baker played quarterback for the Lake Travis High School Cavaliers leading the team to a 25-2 record over two seasons and winning the 2011 4A State Championship. He finished his high school football career with 6,255 passing yards, 67 touchdowns, and eight interceptions and was a three-star recruit. He received a few scholarship offers but ended up walking on at Texas Tech University.
College Football
In 2013, Mayfield was named the starting quarterback for the Red Raiders, becoming the first walk-on true freshman quarterback to start an FBS season opener. In his first start, Baker threw for 413 yards and four touchdowns and was named the Big 12 Conference Offensive Player of the Week. For the year, he amassed 2,315 passing yards and 12 touchdown passes but left the program, citing a miscommunication with the coaching staff.
Mayfield transferred to the University of Oklahoma and walked on for the Sooners. He lost a year of eligibility due to Big 12 transfer rules, but the next season Baker won the starting job. For the 2015 season, Baker helped lead the Sooners to the Orange Bowl, where they lost to Clemson 37-17. The next year, the Sooners won the Sugar Bowl 35-19 over Auburn, with Mayfield earning the MVP award. In 2017, Baker led Oklahoma to their third straight Big 12 championship, beating the TCU Horned Frogs 41-17. The Sooners lost in the 2018 Rose Bowl 54-48 to the Georgia Bulldogs in the national semifinal game.
Mayfield won the 2017 Heisman Trophy receiving 732 first-place votes and a total of 2,398 points. He became the first walk-on player to ever win the prestigious award.
Cleveland Browns
In the 2018 NFL Draft, Mayfield was selected as the first overall pick by the Cleveland Browns. He signed a four-year deal with the team worth $32.68 million in guaranteed salary. He made his first appearance of the season in Week 3 against the New York Jets, stepping in for an injured Tyrod Taylor and leading the team back from a 14-0 deficit to win the game 21-17. Baker took over the starting quarterback job from there, grabbing the reins of a team that had gone 1-31 over the past two years, helping to lead them to a 7-8-1 record. His rookie campaign saw him break the record for touchdown passes thrown by a rookie, surpassing Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson with 27 despite not even playing the entire year.
Over the next few years, the Cleveland Browns went through several coaching and offensive coordinator changes. Mayfield had his best season in 2020, throwing for 4,030 yards, 30 touchdowns, and nine interceptions, including a Wild Card Round playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers and a Divisional Round loss against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Browns exercised Mayfield's fifth-year contract option for the 2022 season worth $18.9 million guaranteed. But Baker played through a partially torn labrum in a down year in which the Browns missed the playoffs. The injury happened after Mayfield threw an interception and tried to make a tackle. He played through most of the season wearing a harness on his shoulder and later suffered a fractured humerus bone in that same shoulder. Mayfield sat out the season finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers and announced he would undergo surgery.
In the offseason, the Cleveland Browns traded for quarterback Deshaun Watson, and Mayfield requested a trade. Baker was traded to the Carolina Panthers on July 6, 2022, for a 2024 conditional fifth-round pick. The Panthers released him (at his request) in December 2022. He was then picked up by the LA Rams. In March 2023, he signed a one-year contract with the Tampa Bay Bucs that gave him a salary of $1.25 million and a signing bonus of $2.875 million.
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Controversy
Mayfield was arrested on February 25, 2017, in Washington County, Arkansas, on charges of public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and fleeing and resisting arrest. Early that Saturday morning, a police officer was flagged down by someone on an assault and battery report. The police report described Baker as unable to walk in a straight line and having slurred speech. When he was asked to stay and give a statement, Baker began yelling and causing a scene. He tried running away but was tackled by an officer and booked on misdemeanor charges. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and was sentenced to complete 35 hours of community service and to take an alcohol education program.
Uber Driving
Mayfield wasn't always a hotshot quarterback. After transferring to Oklahoma from Texas Tech, he wasn't guaranteed a starting job with the Sooners. While still trying to prove himself on the field, Baker spent some time working as an Uber driver.
In 2015 and 2016, Mayfield drove around Norman, giving his fellow Oklahomans rides. The average Uber driver gets about two rides per hour. Assuming Baker drove about 30 hours a week (and even that might be a high estimate), he made $590 a week.
One fan shared a screenshot of his experience riding with Mayfield. Let's just hope the quarterback's receivers run more precise routes than the one he took here:
Personal Life
Baker married Emily Wilkinson in July 2019.
