Imagine for a moment that it's the year 2018, and you were told the following: Baker Mayfield will have the best season of his career in 2023, his sixth season in the league. He'll set career highs in passing yards, completion percentage, and passing touchdowns, and he'll lead his team to their third consecutive division title.

Now at that point in time, Baker Mayfield was coming off of a Heisman Trophy campaign at Oklahoma, and into his rookie season with the Cleveland Browns as the #1 pick in the NFL Draft. It would've been completely reasonable to assume that Mayfield, in his sixth year in the NFL, would be peaking as a player, and likely still playing for the Browns. But my goodness, the path that Mayfield took to get to this point was not what anybody could've expected. And when Mayfield earned the starting job in Tampa Bay at the beginning of the season, the thought of the Buccaneers winning their third consecutive NFC South title seemed as far-fetched as the circumstances that brought Mayfield to Tampa in the first place.

But here we are now… the Buccaneers are NFC South champions, and due to an incentive in Baker Mayfield's contract, the Bucs are giving their quarterback one heck of a payday.

“Buccaneers’ QB Baker Mayfield has a $1 million incentive if his team advances to the postseason; all Tampa has to do today is win, it’s in, and Mayfield collects $1 million,” ESPN's Adam Schefter tweeted before Tampa Bay's game at Carolina today. And then after the Bucs win, Schefter quote tweeted his original tweet:

(This is where we Cut To Baker Mayfield laughing like the Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase)