Buccaneers Get Positive Injury Update on QB Baker Mayfield
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have spent the 2025 regular season to this point finding out how their team operates without the services of an assortment of start players, from NFL All-Pro left offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs to Pro Bowl wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin to NFL All-Pro edge rusher Haason Reddick.
The one player they haven’t had to do without — and the reason they’ve kept their heads above water — is 2-time Pro Bowl quarterback Baker Mayfield.
The Buccaneers have spent the last week wringing their hands about whether they might have to play the Arizona Cardinals in Week 13 without Mayfield, who didn’t play the second half of a blowout loss to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 12 with a shoulder sprain.
There’s a glimmer of hope — or a little more — that the Buccaneers won’t have to find out what life is like without Mayfield after an update on Friday, November 28, from Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles.
“Todd Bowles confirms Benjamin Morrison (and Rashad Wisdom, still on IR) are the only two players ruled out against the Cardinals,” Bucs Gameday’s River Wells wrote on X. “Baker Mayfield is ‘trending’ toward playing, he says.”
Tampa Bay has dropped to 6-5 overall after 3 consecutive losses — and without a good chunk of offensive weapons — after starting the season 5-1.
Miserable Backup QB Option for Buccaneers
One thing the Buccaneers haven’t had in recent memory is any type of viable backup quarterback option. Consider that Kyle Trask got beat out for the backup option by the walking corpse of veteran Teddy Bridgewater in training camp, and that was with Bridgewater not even being brought in until later in camp.
Bridgewater looked like a less than ideal person to play in an actual NFL game during the second half against the Rams.
“Bucs coach Todd Bowles tells reporters that Baker Mayfield is trending towards starting against the Cardinals,” ESPN’s Jenna Laine wrote on her official X account on November 28. “Teddy Bridgewater got the majority of practice reps this week but it’s more of a pain tolerance thing than anything for Mayfield’s shoulder. Mayfield also said this week that he wouldn’t play if he thought he would in any way hold the team back.”
Buccaneers About to Get Huge Lift in Backfield
If there was ever a week Mayfield might be able to thrive at less than 100 percent, it might be against the Cardinals. That’s because the Buccaneers are on track to get back 1,000-yard running back Bucky Irving, who has missed the last 7 games with a shoulder injury.
Irving, a 2024 fourth round pick, seemed like he was on track to take his place among the NFL’s elite running backs this season but has found himself an afterthought for most of the year.
“It’s tough man your first time being hurt … I mean when I step on the field I don’t take this game for granted I love what I do every day,” Irving said on Wednesday, November 26. “ … I’m trying to make plays and make thing happen for this organization and this team to help them in any type of fashion to win football games.”
Jerry Jones Tried to Trade Micah Parsons for Quinnen Williams and the Jets Said No
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones recently revealed that he offered Micah Parsons plus a first-round pick to the Jets in exchange for Quinnen Williams during training camp.
“I wanted a one and Parsons for Williams,” Jones said on 103.5 The Fan. That seems like an absurd offer, but Jones left little up to interpretation.
“A one and Parsons for Williams,”
Jones also said something similar to WFAA’s Ed Werder:
Parsons, of course, was instead sent to the Packers for defensive tackle Kenny Clark and two first-round picks. The Cowboys later acquired Williams before the trade deadline for a package including a 2027 first-rounder, a 2026 second-rounder, and defensive tackle
Jones has slowly revealed more and more information about the Parsons trade since it was completed. During a September radio appearances on ESPN New York, Jones said that called the Jets regarding Williams when he was shopping Parsons before the season. The Jets were not interested, he claimed, because they “didn’t have the resources to entertain [the] conversation,” similar to his pronouncement on 103.5.
If Jones’ latest revelation is true, that means two things. First, he was willing to sacrifice a massive amount of value to move Parsons and acquire Williams. Second, the Jets made a huge mistake in not accepting the deal.
Though Williams is an excellent defensive tackle, Parsons is undoubtedly a better and more valuable player, even at a higher price point. This year, Williams has 2.5 sacks and 10 tackles for loss this season; per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), he ranks fifth among interior defenders with 40 pressures but 38th with a 12.1% pass rush win rate.
Parsons, meanwhile, has 12.5 sacks and 12 tackles for loss, plus 67 pressures and a 24.3% pass rush win rate, both top-three marks among NFL edge rushers. In his career, he has averaged 0.89 sacks and one tackle for loss per game; Williams’ per-game numbers are 0.41 sacks and 0.60 tackles for loss.
Those numbers may not tell the complete story of either player, but it seems like the Jets should have taken Jones’ offer. Sure, they would have had to pony up for Parsons’ mega-extension, but they were already prepared to move on from Williams. Adding an extra first-round pick on top would also give the Jets an opportunity to add another starter – if not a star – on a rookie contract. That would help to offset the financial cost of acquiring Parsons.
But Jones’ words should also be taken with a grain of salt. He has spent a lot of time trying to retroactively justify trading away Parsons, especially after using some of the resulting draft capital to acquire Williams. Claiming that the Jets were not interested in Parsons and a first-rounder for Williams serves to downplay the former’s value and boost the latter’s.
The idea that the Jets could not afford to pay Parsons does not hold water, either. After his extension, the All-Pro edge rusher’s cap hit in 2025 is just $9.97MM. New York certainly could have designed a similar contract structure and absorbed
Perhaps the Jets did want to commit so much money to Parsons as they were clearly contemplating a rebuild. Parsons would still be a cornerstone for that effort, but he may not have wanted to weather any losing seasons in the hopes of a future turnaround. But again, adding another first-round pick would have accelerated that process, and a core of Parsons, cornerback Sauce Gardner, and wide receiver Garrett Wilson seems like a solid foundation for the Jets to build from. That is an expensive trio, but having elite players at three of the sport’s most important positions is a good problem to have.
Instead, the Jets declined the Cowboys’ initial offer for Williams before moving him and Gardner at the deadline as part of what appears to be a full-on franchise reset.
