Baker

Mayfield

Mayfield didn’t play poorly, but he struggled to get much going through the air. He seemed to consistently avoid sacks on third down, picking up yardage with his legs and extending drives. However, when the Bucs’ backs were up against the wall late in the game and were unable to ride their running game, they were unable to move the ball consistently. On their final four possessions, they punted once and turned the ball over twice. Things won’t get much easier next week against the Rams on Sunday night.

Rather amazingly, the three-touchdown effort was Mayfield’s first since Week 1, though score No. 3 came in what amounted to garbage time. He found Tez Johnson twice and Emeka Egbuka once, with the first-round wideout capping the Bucs’ opening drive with a 21-yard strike from Mayfield. He leaked out and got lost on the right side of the red zone. Mayfield took only two sacks but absorbed quite a beating as the Bucs lost LG Ben Bredesen. Not as consistent as last season as the Bucs deal with a makeshift skill corps, Mayfield is still making big plays. He’s just not stacking them together the way he did in 2024. The Bills are an unideal Week 11 road matchup.

The Buccaneers’ offense started slowly against the Saints, with Tampa Bay’s defense doing much of the heavy lifting. The first and fourth drives ended in punts. The second ended in five consecutive no-gain rushes by Buccaneers running backs from inside the Saints’ one-yard line despite being aided by a defensive neutral zone infraction. On the fourth drive, Saints EDGE Chase Young chopped Mayfield’s arm during a throw, resulting in a lost fumble that the Saints recovered. Mayfield nearly connected with WR Emeka Egbuka in the end zone on the Buccaneers’ seventh drive, from 34 yards out, but a Saints DB contested the catch and Egbuka could not secure it despite getting hands on it. Mayfield also had a touchdown pass thrown to TE Cade Otton overturned and spotted at the Saints’ one-yard line upon review. Mayfield will return to the QB1 ranks against the Patriots post-bye in Week 10. Teddy Bridgewater took over with just under four minutes left in the game.

He got in only a limited session on Friday, but Mayfield’s status won’t be questionable for Week 8. He profiles as a QB1 against the Saints in New Orleans, but had an oblique injury added to his knee listing and will assuredly be excited to rest up over the Week 9 bye.

It’s an upgrade from Wednesday’s limited session. Mayfield did notably sail some balls on Monday night while not looking 100 percent comfortable, but it was never particularly likely that he’d miss any time. He’ll be a good-to-go QB1 against the Saints in Week 8.

Mayfield is known for playing through injuries. A limited practice to open the week means this knee issue should be a non-story by Friday. Mayfield lost Mike Evans to a multi-month shoulder injury on Monday and Chris Godwin has already been ruled out for Week 8. Emeka Egbuka managed to play through his hamstring issue, giving Mayfield one top-flight weapon to work with. Even with injuries piling up for the Bucs, Mayfield is entrenched in the QB1 ranks heading into his matchup with the Saints.

As has been the case for most of the Buccaneers’ games this season, Mayfield was forced into late-game heroics once more, although this time he could not replicate the magic he managed through the first six weeks of the season. He lost Mike Evans in the second quarter to a concussion and shoulder injury while rookie Emeka Egbuka played through a hamstring injury, leaving Mayfield heavily reliant on Cade Otton, Tex Johnson, and Sterling Shepard. The Buccaneers were unable to crack a Lions defense playing with zero members of their starting secondary, but defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard seemed to have all the right answers, limiting the Bucs to just 251 yards of total offense after holding them to 52 yards in the first half. Baker and the Buccaneers fall to 5-2 ahead of a divisional meeting with the Saints in Week 8, a contest they could once again be forced to play without their top pass-catcher.

No Mike Evans? No Chris Godwin? No Emeka Egbuka in the second half? Well that’s just another normal day at the office for Mayfield. Mayfield darted a pair of long scores to Tez and Kameron Johnson to keep the Buccaneers in the driver’s seat for most of the second half, finally pulling away late. The 30-year-old quarterback absolutely shredded the middle of the field with Fred Warner lost to an ankle injury, completing 8-of-9 passes there for 145 yards and a touchdown. Potentially sans Egbuka, it’s hard to say that Mayfield’s ceiling will be sky high against the Lions next Monday night. But he’s also performed so well despite the loss of his weapons that we’re not quite taking him off the QB1 line either.

Seattle was missing four key starters on defense, and Baker capitalized, torching the Seahawks’ defense all game long. When he had a clean pocket, he was able to work the ball down the field to Emeka Egbuka or Cade Otton, and when the Seahawks collapsed the pocket, Baker was able to cook up whatever magic allows him to repeatedly miss defenders and scamper for extra yards. It doesn’t matter how many weapons he loses around him, Baker just keeps delivering and will be hard to bench next week against the 49ers.

Mayfield was listed as a DNP for Wednesday’s walkthrough but returned for a full session on Thursday and Friday. He was never at any risk of missing his Week 5 date with the Seahawks. The same can’t be said of Bucky Irving and Mike Evans, who were both ruled out for Sunday’s game. A road trip to face Mike Macdonald’s stalwart defense isn’t ideal for Mayfield’s fantasy outlook, but injuries and bye weeks have him just inside the QB1 ranks despite a poor matchup.