Baker Mayfield and CJ Stroud our handling their contract differently

Summary

Payne & Pendergast – Episode Summary
“Baker Mayfield and CJ Stroud are handling their contract differently”
Date: July 31, 2026

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Main Theme

This episode centers on how NFL quarterbacks Baker Mayfield (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and CJ Stroud (Houston Texans) are approaching their respective contract negotiations, showcasing contrasting attitudes and public personas. Hosts Sean Pendergast and Seth Payne dissect the latest comments and behaviors from both players, analyzing the implications for their teams and reputations.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. CJ Stroud’s Quiet Professionalism

• Nick Caserio’s Praise (01:11–01:29):
  Texans GM Nick Caserio recently spoke to the media, lauding Stroud’s attitude and consistent offseason performance.

  “He’s had a really good offseason. It’s probably the best offseason he’s had since he’s been here. He’s had a good attitude, he’s been consistent. …There’s a possibility something could come to fruition.”
  — Nick Caserio (01:11)

• Stroud’s Own Approach (02:17–02:34):
  Stroud was even-keeled when asked about his contract situation:

  “You know, everything has been great. …I’m focused on ball. Trying to do what I should be doing as quarterback of this team. I’m letting them handle it and seems like everything is going great.”
  — CJ Stroud (02:17)

• Host Analysis:
  Both hosts commended Stroud for letting his agent handle negotiations, not stirring up public drama, and focusing on football. They joked about Stroud’s repeated struggle with the phrase “hold up my end of the bargain,” adding a light, supportive tone (02:41–03:37).

  “I think he’s handling it really well.”
  — Sean Pendergast (02:40)

  “He’s holding this bargain right in the middle.”
  — Seth Payne (03:27)

• Takeaway:
  Stroud’s approach was consistently credited as mature and team-first, making things easier for the Texans and minimizing distractions (11:24–12:07).

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2. Baker Mayfield’s Public Frustration

• Mayfield's Situation (04:08–04:46):
  In the last year of a 3-year, $100M contract, Mayfield is pushing for a deal in the $50–$55M/year “franchise quarterback” tier. He publicly set a training camp deadline for a new contract, threatening free agency if not resolved.

• Press Conference: Raw Emotion (05:08–05:53):
  Mayfield spoke openly at Bucs training camp about feeling disrespected and undervalued:

  “Do not get me wrong.…I really know what I’ve brought to this franchise, leadership-wise and play-wise. …So disappointing in that regard to not have, you know, to feel disrespect a little bit. And that’s really the disappointing part, to feel undervalued after, you know, thinking you’ve earned it.”
  — Baker Mayfield (05:08)

  Hosts noted these key words (“disrespected, undervalued, disappointed”) were quickly picked up as headlines—marking his approach as very different from Stroud’s.

• Host Critique:
  Payne and Pendergast, while sympathetic to Mayfield’s toughness and growth, questioned the wisdom of airing grievances:

  “Not everything needs to be said out loud. You don’t have to add any extra drama to this situation.… Where’d Mr. Tough Guy go?”
  — Seth Payne (06:02)

  “Swallow your feelings and let it turn into a tumor someday, but don’t be blabbing about it.”
  — Seth Payne (06:31)

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3. Mayfield’s Follow-Up with ESPN & Jeremy Fowler

• Follow-Up Interview: More Details (08:15–09:48):
  Despite saying negotiations were over, Mayfield went in-depth with ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler:

  “It was all three between years average and guarantees. Probably the most disappointing is years—didn’t get offered anything over two. …When you’re told you’re a franchise quarterback and they handle it otherwise, that’s disappointing.”
  — Baker Mayfield (08:28)

  “I was never trying to reset the market.… But it’s also, I know just to be compensated, put in that category, and salary cap keeps going up. …It’s unfortunate they failed to recognize that.”
  — Baker Mayfield (09:17)

• Analysis:
  The hosts poked fun at Mayfield’s see-saw between setting ultimatums and then backing off them, suggesting his lack of emotional restraint could weaken his negotiating position and possibly his leadership standing (10:19–10:32).

  “He set a hard deadline and now you’re wavering on the deadline. It sounds like maybe the Bucs actually know you better than you know yourself.”
  — Seth Payne (10:19)

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4. Comparative Takeaways

• Crediting Stroud’s Composure:
  The episode repeatedly highlighted how Texans fans are fortunate that Stroud isn’t making his contract negotiation a public drama and is wholly focused on football (11:24–12:07).

  “He hasn’t made this a bigger story than it needs to be.…He’s been quiet about it and said all the right things.”
  — Seth Payne (11:28)

• Baker’s “Soft Deadline” and NFL Market Analysis:
  Discussion moved to whether Mayfield’s “deadline” was ever real, the merits of short-term deals at $50M/year, and Mayfield’s quest for a final big, long-term contract (12:12–12:59).

  “If the Texans needed a quarterback, I’d give Baker two years, $100 million bucks. Like that.”
  — Sean Pendergast (12:51)

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• CJ Stroud’s Phrase Fumble:

  “He’s botching the hold my end of the bargain up. He’s done that twice now. He can’t even get the prepositions right.”
  — Seth Payne (02:41)

• Baker’s Emotional Honesty:

  “So disappointing in that regard to not have, you know, to feel disrespect a little bit. And that’s really the disappointing part, to feel undervalued.”
  — Baker Mayfield (05:53)

• Host Sarcasm on Handling Contracts:

  “Swallow your feelings and let it turn into a tumor someday, but don’t be blabbing about it.”
  — Seth Payne (06:31)

• Summary Judgment:

  “Baker, on the other hand. Flamethrower everywhere.”
  — Sean Pendergast (12:07)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [01:11] Nick Caserio on Stroud’s attitude and contract talks
• [02:17] CJ Stroud’s press comments on contract
• [05:08] Baker Mayfield airs out frustration at Bucs camp
• [08:28] Mayfield’s extended interview with Jeremy Fowler
• [11:24] Comparisons and praise for Stroud’s approach
• [12:12] Analysis of Mayfield’s “soft” deadline & market value

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Episode Tone & Style

Maintaining the duo’s hallmark mix of insider insight and locker-room humor, this episode pokes fun at the drama while offering genuine analysis of negotiation tactics, public relations, and what this means for each team’s leadership culture. Payne & Pendergast balance player empathy with wit and dry realism, delivering an episode that is informative, engaging, and quintessentially Houston.

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Transcript

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[Sports Analyst]

Yeah, he's had a really good offseason. It's probably the best offseason he's had since he's been here. He's had a good attitude, he's been consistent. He's got the right mindset. I'd say we've definitely had productive conversations over the course of the spring. So, I mean, there's a possibility that something could come to fruition. So we'll work through it and, you know, see what happens.

[Celsius Advertiser]

Okay.

[Main Host]

That was Nick Casario a couple of days ago, meeting with the media, talking about C.J. stroud's contract. Nick will join us on Tuesday, next week. Tuesday, August 4th, sometime in the seven o' clock hour. I'm nailing down a specific time, but I saw. I talked to Nick. Day one of camp.

[Sports Analyst]

Show up when it works for us, Sean. That's true.

[Main Host]

No, that's what I told him.

[Sports Analyst]

I told him that with my eyes.

[Main Host]

You did?

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah. We didn't actually have a conversation, but we nodded at each other and I basically gave him that look like, you'll come on when we tell you to come on.

[Main Host]

Y. And he was cool with it. So. So that was Casario talking about Stroud's off season. And they're having productive conversations about a contract extension for CJ Stroud. Here was CJ when he was asked about it. After practice on day one, I think,

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you know, everything has been great. You know, I'm focused on ball. Trying to do what a bet, trying to just hold my, my bargain down on just the football side and do what I can, you know, and what I should be doing as a, as a quarterback of this team. So I'm letting them handle it and seems like everything is going great.

[Jen Hatmaker]

Okay.

[Main Host]

So my agent's handling it. Things are going fine. Not going to make a big public display out of all this.

[Sports Analyst]

The.

[Main Host]

I think he's handling it really well.

[Sports Analyst]

He's handled it well. He's botching the hold my end of the bargain up. He's done that twice now. He can't even get the prepositions right.

[Main Host]

He's had a. I've accepted that this

[Sports Analyst]

is how it's going to be in the OTAs. He said, I've held my bargain up.

[Main Host]

Yeah.

[Sports Analyst]

And this time he said, I've held my bargain. We know what he's trying to say, but I just wanted to get it right. I feel like once he nails it, then they're going to be ready to pay him on that.

[Main Host]

Yes. What are they waiting for him to say? Hold down your end of the bargain.

[Sports Analyst]

That's phrase. The. Yeah. I think they're pretty civil and congenial and sounds like there's been a little bit of back and forth. Yeah. And not, not all that, not all that confrontational.

[Main Host]

He's not going to make a public, he's not going to make a public display out of this. Now that we've heard that. CJ audience.

[Sports Analyst]

He's holding this bargain right in the middle.

[Main Host]

He's holding that bargain right in between four fingers and a thumb. Man.

[Sports Analyst]

If you hold a bargain too tightly, you'll kill it. If you hold it too lightly, it'll fly away.

[Main Host]

Hold it like a gentle, a gentle dove.

[Sports Analyst]

Yes.

[Main Host]

So. But overall, cj, and not just the other day in the tent over there doing the press conference, but I think throughout the off season, I think he's given good answers and it sounds like he's had a really good off season from what everybody's saying. We just heard Nick Casario say he's at his best off season as a Houston Texan. So this is fresh in our minds. CJ's answer, Baker Mayfield is trying to get a new contract as well. Now this would be his, you know, he, Baker came into the league several years before cj.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah.

[Main Host]

But Baker is in the last year of a three year, hundred million dollar deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So he's making about 30 million a year. He's got a year left on the deal. Baker thinks he should be in that $55 million class, you know, up with those guys that are in the 50 plus million.

[Sports Analyst]

The franchise tag for quarterbacks right now is 55 million or so, correct? Yeah.

[Main Host]

Yeah. So he's got one year. He's got this year left. He's trying to get a new long term deal after this year. And so he's been trying all offseason. He's been very public about, hey, when training camp gets here, no more negotiations. If it's going to get done, it gets done by training camp. And that's just the way it goes. Otherwise, he's headed to free agency.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah.

[Main Host]

Here was Baker Mayfield yesterday at his first press conference at training camp. Not nearly as, not, not nearly handling, handling it nearly as kind of well

[Sports Analyst]

for saying it was going to be a hard deadline and then they're not going to think about it.

[Main Host]

Yeah, yeah, he's, he's much more vocal about how his emotions with this than C.J. stroud is.

[Baker Mayfield]

I wanted the deal done and set the deadline and told them it was going to be all ball after that, and I did mean that. And I don't know if they thought I was just going to take some of the offers that they gave, but I'm at the point of my career and understanding what I've brought to this franchise. One, I'm very, very thankful for the chance they gave me. Do not get me wrong on that. But I've also know, I really know what I've brought to this franchise, leadership wise and even play wise. It's been some of the best years of my career and I think it's only going to trend upwards just being comfortable and feeling that. So disappointing in that regard to not have, you know, to feel disrespect a little bit. And that's really the disappointing part, to feel undervalued after, you know, thinking you've earned it.

[Main Host]

Disrespected, undervalued, disappointed. Those were the, those were the words that all made headlines yesterday.

[Sports Analyst]

Right?

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Right.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah. Which is like, honestly, like, I like Baker Mayfield. He's grown on me. I didn't like him when he was a younger player, but now he's kind of grown on me. And I think he is the real, I think he is the real deal when it comes to toughness and all of that. But like, man, not everything needs to be said out loud. You don't have to add any extra drama to this situation. Especially if you said, hey, we're gonna have negotiations and then I'm gonna not worry about it. Oh, it's first week of training camp and it sounds like I've got a little. I've got some caught up in my feelings. Where'd Mr. Tough Guy go?

[Main Host]

Well, that's the thing, too.

[Sports Analyst]

Swallow your feelings and let it turn into a tumor someday, but don't be blabbing about it.

[Jeremy Fowler]

Well, the re.

[Main Host]

And the, the, the audio was actually about four minutes long. That was just the 40 seconds or so that popped. But he tried to make it clear like, but no, I'm, I'm focused now. It's all about winning. It's all about moving forward. We'll see. I mean, it sounds like he's kind of up in his feelings about this whole thing. And the way he's getting quote unquote

[Sports Analyst]

treated right now sounds like a little bit less psychotic. Brandon Iuk.

[Main Host]

Here's how you know. Here's how you know it's. It's a little bit. Here's how you know it's really sticking with him. He did a follow up interview after that press conference with Jeremy Fowler probably after practice. Jeremy Fowler Vs.

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[Main Host]

ESPN was out at Tampa Bay Buccaneers practice yesterday and it would have been very easy for when Jeremy Fowler starts asking contract questions for him to say, I said my piece at the press conference. Yeah, I, you know, I said, I'm all, I'm football now. It would have been very easy to do that. Take a listen to this audio. He goes deep on what exactly is bothering him about the offers that the Buccaneers have made.

[Jeremy Fowler]

I'm here at Baker Mayfield. Baker, you've used words like disrespected, disappointed, undervalued when it comes to your contract. What value did the team place on you that made you feel that way?

[Baker Mayfield]

I mean, it was, it was all three between years average and guarantees. Probably the most disappointing is years didn't get offered anything over two. And so when you, when you're told you're a franchise quarterback and they handle it otherwise, that's disappointing. So felt like I earned that. It's not a, it's not a poor me pity party over here. It is what it is. And so that's why I said the deadline was training camp focused on the team, focused on getting better and trying to give this team a better chance to win a Super Bowl.

[Jeremy Fowler]

What was their reasoning for that?

[Baker Mayfield]

For the deadline or for the number

[Jeremy Fowler]

of years, districts that weren't there for.

[Baker Mayfield]

I don't know. I don't know why. Why wasn't there. So I can't give an explanation.

[Jeremy Fowler]

Yeah, you've said you're a franchise quarterback. You've shown that. Do you believe and did you make a stance that you belong in that, you know, top 10 range, 50 plus million dollars, that that's sort of the market and where you are?

[Baker Mayfield]

Yeah. And I told them, I said it publicly. I was never trying to reset the market. I know where I fit in on that. I'm not over realistic on that. But it's also, I know just to be compensated put in that category and salary cap keeps going up. The guys that are going to re sign next year, it's going to look a lot different. So at the end of the day, it'd probably be still right about top 15 next year this time. But it's unfortunate they failed to recognize that.

[Jeremy Fowler]

How far away were they from that range?

[Baker Mayfield]

Pretty far.

[Jen Hatmaker]

Yeah,

[Main Host]

he's. I mean, that is dishing.

[Sports Analyst]

That's dish. And then he would talk with Prisco later on. Really?

[Main Host]

Yeah, he talked to Prisco, same thing. And was he doing the same thing?

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah, basically.

[Main Host]

Probably like, you know, I gotta give it to everybody if they're asking it. I can't tell. He's my favorites now.

[Sports Analyst]

He said that now, remember after Hardo Baker had set an ultimatum and said there'd be no discussions, he said he's open to potentially signing a deal. Now after, like this is where I'm like, all right, dude, you set an ultimatum, you said a. Set a hard deadline and now you're wavering on the deadline.

[Main Host]

Yeah.

[Sports Analyst]

It sounds like maybe the bucks actually know you better than you know yourself.

[Jeremy Fowler]

Right, right.

[Sports Analyst]

And okay, they lowballed you. Yeah. Yeah. And now you're open to doing something past your deadline. He's way up in his feelings. Just bad place to be when you're in a Negotiation.

[Main Host]

And it can negotiate and a bad place to be as a quarterback when you're the quarterback of the football team. Absolutely.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah.

[Main Host]

So, I mean, I was watching that yesterday. I'm like, man, I. I just wanted to give CJ even more credit for how he's been handling his business here. I think there was. I think with Texan fans, there was like, not major worry, but slight worry that that's what the Texans would be getting a version of this offseason. Yeah. At the very least through the spring, when the player has a little bit of leverage. You know, the voluntary stuff, things like that. Credit. C.J. stroud. He's not only been doing the stuff away from the building, according to everybody that he needs to do to get into this conversation that Baker's having, but he's been doing all the stuff out here. You know, every voluntary thing, every, you know, every rep out here, you know, every. Every question in a press conference about it, he is deferring and giving a 15 second answer and moving on.

[Sports Analyst]

Right.

[Main Host]

So that, that just kind of hammered home for me how CJ's been handling it.

[Sports Analyst]

And I think we've given him a lot of credit for that. You know, we've said that a lot. It's that, man, you know what credit to cj, he hasn't made this a bigger story than it needs to be. The only thing, the only thing that made it a bigger story was when people just took that one sound bite of him saying, I've held my end of the bargain up. Paraphrasing during minicamp. But it was like he had said that immediately after he said, my job is to improve every day. I'm gonna let my agent handle everything else. Like, it wasn't like he was making some kind of a bold statement or anything and. But. But it was a good soundbite, so people ran with it. I think, by and large, he's just. He's been quiet about it and said all the right things.

[Main Host]

I agree. I agree. Baker, on the other hand. Flamethrower everywhere.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah. Prisco had envisioned a scenario in which both Mayfield and the Bucs were playing well and the team wanted to get something done. Baker said, well, unless it's some deal where they actually recognize my value and they want me here, long term, that was the biggest difference. There was zero long term lock in. Kind of opened the door maybe to.

[Main Host]

Clearly a soft deadline.

[Sports Analyst]

Yeah. So the franchise tag next year is 50 million for quarterbacks. This year it's 43 million per year for. So, I mean, there is there is an element of like, at the very least, if it's going to be a short term deal, you would think that Baker is, I would have no qualms at all about giving him 50 million a year.

[Main Host]

No, I wouldn't.

[Sports Analyst]

On a two year deal or something.

[Main Host]

But on a, the Texans needed a quarterback. I'd give Baker two years, 100 million bucks. Like that.

[Sports Analyst]

But he also wants, he wants a long term lock in.

[Main Host]

Yeah, yeah. That's probably his last big bite at the apple, you know what I mean? Like the last chance at a real nice juicy long term deal. So. All right, that was good. That was compelling audio. All right, top of the hour at 7 o'. Clock, Seth is going to empty his training camp notebook. If you want to get up to speed on what's been going on out here, be listening at 7 o'.

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[Main Host]

Be listening in the next segment because we've got headlines. The Astros did nothing yesterday and picked up ground in the AL West. That's the best kind of day. And injury update from the Texans. A wild story involving a Houston Rocket as well that we will get to in headline.

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