Baker Mayfield’s thumb injury may keep him out longer than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers first hoped, with ESPN reporting there’s a path that could stretch his absence to six weeks.
Mayfield is dealing with a dislocated thumb, and his return reportedly depends on whether he can grip the football again. Coach Todd Bowles said this week he expects the quarterback to miss at least three weeks, but the ESPN report says that timeline could grow if the recovery doesn’t move as planned.
The good news for Tampa Bay is that surgery does not appear to be on the table. Mayfield’s MRI on Monday showed no additional damage, and the Buccaneers have not placed him on injured reserve, leaving the team to sort through the possibility that the injury could linger beyond a month.
That uncertainty lands at a rough moment for Mayfield, who is coming off a strong 2025 season but has not found much traction through three starts this year. He has completed 63.5% of his passes for 615 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions, while the Buccaneers have opened 0-3.
His Week 3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings brought more punishment than just the final score. Mayfield was sacked six times and knocked down 12 times, fueling criticism that he was trying to create too much outside the pocket instead of living to fight another down.
“He just needs to go down, throw it away, get tackled,” former Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski said this week. “He's trying to break too many tackles, but like I said, that's just his personality.
That's just how he plays the game of football. But at the quarterback position in the NFL, with everyone being good, sometimes you just need to throw the ball away.
You just really do, and just go on to the next play and do what you got to do on the next play.”
Now the spotlight shifts to Jalon Daniels, the undrafted rookie who suddenly has the job and a big chunk of Tampa Bay’s season in his hands. Daniels will start Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, and he’ll be the first Buccaneers quarterback not named Mayfield to start a game since 2022.
He said Mayfield has already tried to steady him with advice during practice.
“He simply put it as, 'You've been dreaming of this opportunity,'” Daniels said. “‘Just stay composed, play as yourself, don't try to be anybody else besides yourself, and just go out there and go make football plays.’”
Daniels also said working through film with Mayfield and practice squad quarterback Easton Stick has helped him prepare for his first career start. He knows what defenses usually do when they see a rookie under center.
“Defenses, whenever they see a rookie quarterback, they try to do everything that they can to try to be able to blitz the quarterback, try to be able to make him get confused, try to be able to disguise everything that they can, and I'm aware of that,” Daniels said. “Me being aware of that, I'm trying to do everything that I can to, like I said, lean on Easton, lean on Bake and try to be able to get every single answer I can to everything they've had on film.”
The stakes are obvious for Tampa Bay. Seven NFL teams have made the playoffs after starting 0-3, and the Buccaneers were one of them in 1982. Daniels now gets the first crack at keeping that door from shutting.
In Other News...
Buccaneers Suddenly Face A Bigger Baker Mayfield Problem Than Expected
Baker Mayfields thumb injury has turned into a much bigger issue for the Buccaneers than a short-term scare. The veteran quarterback suffered a dislocated thumb and is expected to miss multiple games, with his return hinging on how quickly he regains grip strength. For Tampa Bay, the timing is especially tricky because Mayfield had been in the middle of another season as the teams starter after appearing in three games so far.
The immediate answer is rookie Jalon Daniels, who has been named the backup and will start while Mayfield is out. It puts an abrupt spotlight on Tampa Bays quarterback depth and raises the stakes around how the offense functions without the player the Buccaneers signed to a multi-year deal. The bigger question now is not just who starts next, but how long the team has to live without Mayfield and what kind of shape he is in when he finally returns. [Read more 🡒]
Packers Fan Goes Viral For A Gameday Moment Bucs Fans Pounced On
A gameday photo from the Packers-Buccaneers matchup quickly took on a life of its own, with a Green Bay fan in a cheese-themed outfit drawing plenty of attention on social media. Buccaneers fans, already tuned into a rough start for their own team, jumped on the image and helped turn a random moment from the stands into one of the evenings louder online talking points.
It fit the mood around Tampa Bay, where the Bucs came in at 0-3 and were turning to undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels at quarterback because of Baker Mayfields injury. Green Bay arrived at 1-2, but the game was about more than the records for Tampa Bay supporters, who had little patience to spare and plenty of time to notice, and react to, anything that stood out. [Read more 🡒]
Todd Bowles Just Became The Center Of Tampa Bay's Biggest Debate
The Buccaneers slow start has pushed Todd Bowles into the middle of a conversation nobody in Tampa Bay wanted to have this early. At 0-4, with a 3-12 record stretching back to last season, the losses are piling up fast enough to turn every miscue into a referendum on direction, execution and leadership. Bowles stepped to the podium after the latest setback and owned the mess, taking responsibility while insisting he still believes he can guide the team out of it.
Bowles has handled the public side of the slump the way a veteran coach usually does, but the frustration around the team is only growing because so many of the defeats have stayed within reach. Close games tend to sharpen the focus on the head coach, and if the Buccaneers keep coming up short in those spots, the accountability debate will only get louder. For now, Bowles is asking for patience, even as the results make that a harder sell by the week. [Read more 🡒]