Tampa Bay’s season was already going badly. Now the Buccaneers will hand the offense to an undrafted rookie who has never completed an NFL pass.
Baker Mayfield dislocated the thumb on his throwing hand in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 23-16 loss to Minnesota. Head coach Todd Bowles confirmed Tuesday that the MRI showed no fracture and no ligament or tendon damage, calling the result “consistent with everything we thought it was, a dislocation.” The timeline is still ugly: a minimum of three weeks.
Three Weeks Is The Floor, Not The Ceiling
Bowles put a potential return at Week 7 against Carolina. Surgery is not expected and the Buccaneers do not plan to place Mayfield on injured reserve, which is the only good news in the whole situation.
His streak of 57 consecutive starts ends Sunday. That number matters because Mayfield has been the one constant in Tampa since he arrived, and he signed a three-year, $165 million extension just before the season started. The Buccaneers bet enormous money on him being the answer, and they are 0-3 while he leads all qualified passers in negative EPA per play at minus-0.30.
A thumb injury on the throwing hand is the wrong injury for a quarterback trying to play his way out of a slump. Grip and release timing are the first things to go, and they are the last things to come back. Anyone assuming Mayfield returns in Week 7 as the version Tampa paid for is guessing.
Enter Jalon Daniels
Jalon Daniels gets the start against Green Bay on October 4. The Kansas product went undrafted this spring, then played well enough in the preseason that Bowles kept him ahead of veteran Easton Stick, who is on the practice squad.
His NFL resume so far consists of three pass attempts, three incompletions, nine rushing yards and a game-sealing interception in relief on Sunday. Bowles has praised his football intelligence and his summer work, which is what coaches say when the alternative is nothing.
The history here is real. Daniels becomes the first quarterback other than Mayfield to start for Tampa Bay since Tom Brady in 2022, and the first undrafted rookie to start at the position in the franchise’s 51-year history. Green Bay is not the opponent you want for that debut.
The Bigger Problem
Tampa Bay has now lost its starting quarterback, and the receiving room has been thinning out for weeks. An 0-3 team asking an undrafted rookie to hold the fort for three to four games is a team that should start being honest with itself about January.
The Buccaneers may add another quarterback to the roster or practice squad while Mayfield heals, and they should. Running a season on a rookie who has thrown three professional passes and a practice-squad veteran is not a plan.
What makes this sting is the contract. Tampa committed $165 million to stability at the most important position, and three games later the position is being held by a player nobody drafted. Sometimes the expensive answer and the right answer are the same thing, and you only find out when the expensive answer is unavailable.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.