Baker Mayfield's injury recovery timeline could extend to six weeks

There's an alternate injury timeline involving Baker Mayfield that could leave the Tampa Bay Buccaneers without their starting quarterback for an extended period beyond the franchise's three-week expectation, according to ESPN.

The report states that Mayfield's return from a dislocated thumb is contingent on being able to grip the football. Coach Todd Bowles said this week he expects Mayfield to be out for at least three weeks, but that could extend to six weeks, per the report.

Mayfield's injury is not expected to require surgery after his MRI on Monday revealed no additional damage. Mayfield has not been placed on IR, an internal dilemma the Buccaneers face if his injury extends beyond the month-long projection.

Coming off a stellar individual campaign in 2025, Mayfield struggled to find his rhythm through three starts this fall, completing 63.5% of his throws for 615 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions on a winless team.

Mayfield suffered six sacks and was taken to the ground a dozen times in Tampa's Week 3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings, sparking reaction that the franchise quarterback was trying to do too much from outside the pocket with extending plays.

"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."

Opportunity for Jalon Daniels

Thrust into an unexpected starting role, undrafted rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels will determine if Tampa Bay holds any legitimate playoff hopes during Mayfield's absence as the Bucs try to climb out of an 0-3 hole this season.

Seven NFL teams have reached the playoffs after a winless start through three games and the Buccaneers (1982) were one of them.

Daniels will be Tampa Bay's first starter not named Mayfield since 2022 on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers. He shared this week that the veteran quarterback offered him encouragement during practice in prep for his first career start.

"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 said film prep this week alongside Mayfield and practice squad quarterback Easton Stick was beneficial for all parties.

"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."