The Buccaneers will be without two key starters again on Sunday.
Head coach Todd Bowles said quarterback Baker Mayfield and safety Antoine Winfield Jr. have been ruled out for Tampa Bay’s Week 6 matchup with the Steelers, according to Rick Stroud. For Mayfield, it’s the third straight game he’ll miss. For Winfield, it’s his second in a row.
Mayfield’s thumb injury has already kept him sidelined longer than Tampa Bay would like. Adam Schefter recently reported there was concern the quarterback could miss as many as six games with the dislocated thumb, and he’s already halfway through that stretch. Mayfield avoided any additional damage beyond the original dislocation, though he did need stitches to close the wound.
With Mayfield still unavailable, undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels remains in line to start at quarterback. He won the backup job and will keep the role as long as Mayfield is out.
Winfield’s absence fits the timetable Stroud reported weeks ago, when he said the safety was expected to miss two to four weeks because of a rib fracture.
Mayfield, 31, entered the league as the Browns’ No. 1 overall pick out of Oklahoma in 2018. He spent the fourth year of his rookie deal in Cleveland, a four-year contract worth $32.68 million that included a $21.85 million signing bonus. The Browns later picked up his fifth-year option, which would have carried an $18.858 million fully guaranteed salary in 2022.
Cleveland then traded Mayfield to the Panthers for a conditional 2024 fourth-round pick, and the Browns agreed to pay $10.5 million of his salary while Carolina covered the rest. The Panthers eventually released him during the season, and he was claimed by the Rams to finish out his contract in Los Angeles.
Mayfield joined Tampa Bay on a one-year deal worth up to $8.5 million in 2023, then signed a three-year, $100 million contract with the Buccaneers in 2024. Tampa Bay later added $30 million in guarantees for the 2026 season and then signed him to a three-year, $165 million extension just before the start of the season.
So far in 2026, Mayfield has played in three games and completed 63.5 percent of his passes for 615 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Winfield, 28, was a four-year starter at Minnesota and earned All-American honors in 2019 before Tampa Bay took him in the second round, No. 45 overall, in the 2020 NFL Draft. He finished his rookie contract - a four-year deal worth $7,307,182 with a $2,874,314 signing bonus - and was set to become an unrestricted free agent before the Buccaneers placed the franchise tag on him at $17.123 million fully guaranteed.
Tampa Bay later gave Winfield a four-year, $84.1 million extension ahead of the 2024 season. In 2026, he has appeared in four games and totaled 24 tackles.
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The schedule offers little room to ease into that challenge, with Pittsburgh, Carolina, Atlanta and Chicago all ahead before the Week 10 bye. If Tampa Bay keeps slipping, the conversation around Bowles will only get louder, because the margin for staying competitive in the division is already thin and the next month could define whether this season is merely frustrating or something far more consequential for the coaching staff. [Read more 🡒]