The Arizona Cardinals face one of the NFC’s best teams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Well, they began this season as one of the best and have since lost four out of their last five games, including three
in a row.
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To make things worse, their starting quarterback, Baker Mayfield, injured his left shoulder in the team’s disconcerting loss to the Rams last Sunday night. The first half was winding down as Mayfield dropped back to pass and heaved a Hail Mary that fell harmlessly to the turf as time expired. Both benches began the trek to the locker room, except for Mayfield, who was lying face down on the field.
He had help from the trainers to get him into the locker room and did not return in the second half. He had an MRI on Monday, which displayed that he suffered a sprained AC joint with no structural damage. The Bucs breathed a sigh of relief that the injury wasn’t as bad as it first appeared.
The big question then was, when would he return to the field? Would he suit up for the Cardinals contest?
This type of injury for Mayfield has occurred before. In 2021, while with the Cleveland Browns, he injured his non-throwing shoulder and then continued to play the remainder of the season until he was forced to step aside in the final game. The thought process then became, the Browns should have sat him, required a surgical procedure, then brought him back the following season.
Instead, Mayfield had a horrible year and found himself traded to the Carolina Panthers for a bag of footballs.
On Wednesday, Mayfield met with the media to discuss his injury and status.
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Q: How’s the pain level?
Mayfield: It’s there.
Q: Increasing? Decreasing?
Mayfield: Decreasing for sure. It’s pain tolerance and management at that point. See how it goes through the week, and see where it goes from there. Understanding that we have Teddy (Bridgewater) and I have been in this spot before, hurting the non-throwing shoulder. If it’s going to hinder how I play, then I probably won’t go. But, won’t know that until later in the week, getting practice reps and seeing how that goes.
Q: We saw you grab it after the touchdown pass. Clearly, it happened before that. When did it happen? How did it happen?
Mayfield: It came on one of the scramble runs up the middle. Kind of got hit on the right side. Exposed the left shoulder and got hit a little late. Just one of those getting hit at the right angle.
Q: How much can you lean on what happened in Cleveland in terms of how to manage this, because it’s a similar injury?
Mayfield: It’s very different. I had dislocated my shoulder completely and had a torn labrum, partial rotator cuff, and cracked the bone in the socket. So, it’s very different. Truly, it’s about pain tolerance management and being able to move around.
Q: Is that injury going to have any factor in how you proceed?
Mayfield: A little bit just from the physical aspect of it. I don’t want to hold this team back.
Q: You are in decent shape with a lot of football left. It’s not a playoff game. How much will that factor into your decision to start against Arizona?
Mayfield: Where we’re at right now, we’re viewing the rest of these game “must-win” situations. That’s how we are approaching it. If I am physically able to go, then I’ll do it. But I won’t know that until later on in the week. The mental side I will be alright.
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles then took the podium to field questions about Mayfield.
Q: We saw Mayfield out there today on the walk-through. Is there any potential for him to play on Sunday?
Bowles: We’ll see tomorrow. He has to do more tomorrow and get a good look at him full speed. But he’s feeling better.
Q: From an injury standpoint, do you feel good about the progress?
Bowles: It was good to see him compete in the walk-through. Hopefully, he is trending forward, and we can get a better gauge of that.
Q: Are you getting Teddy (Bridgewater) ready to play with a game plan and then see if Baker can go?
Bowles: Yeah, you got to get Teddy ready to play. Obviously Baker’s sore and see how he feels at the end of the week.
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Will Mayfield play against the Cardinals this week? The answer to that is that nobody knows at this juncture. But it appears that Mayfield is at a point in his career where he has learned from past experiences that an athlete cannot just press on and continue to play if he remains injured. It doesn’t help anyone.
So, his comments sort of lean towards the fact that Mayfield is willing to do what is best for the Buccaneers. Even if that means he will be holding the clipboard on the sidelines against Arizona.
Tampa Bay began the season 3-0-0 and 5-1-0 and now sits at 6-5-0. They have beaten some really good teams in Seattle and San Francisco, but have lost to some really good teams as well: Detroit Lions, Los Angeles Rams, New England Patriots, and Buffalo Bills.
Good teams are able to stay in the game with really good teams, but the Bucs just aren’t doing this.
Mayfield is having a good season and has been mentioned in the MVP category. Bridgewater has only thrown eight passes this year in four games. In his 11 years, he has only played four complete seasons, and after his major injury in 2016, in which he tore his ACL and suffered other structural damage, including a dislocation of the knee joint, he has primarily been a backup in the league.
Playing the 3-8-0 Cardinals on the road won’t be as easy as it would appear on paper.
