Baker Mayfield has something to be thankful for this week.
Mayfield's original fears after he sustained a left shoulder injury in the second quarter of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Sunday night loss to the Los Angeles Rams and then worsened it on the final play of the first half have since been allayed by medical examinations. Mayfield was left clutching the shoulder in obvious pain after he attempted a scrambling 'Hail Mary' pass and fell to the turf in the process, and he initially thought the injury could be something serious.
"On the Hail Mary, or whatever you want to call that attempt of it, it felt like my shoulder was unstable, which MRIs and all that revealed that it's stable [and] everything is intact, so that's really good news," he said on Wednesday, three days later. It's really about feeling good enough to be able to rip the ball and feeling confident in it to finish through throws and stay on top of the ball."
Mayfield has been through a troubling injury to his non-throwing shoulder before, and it's fair to say that one led to his departure from Cleveland, where he had played four seasons after being drafted first overall in 2018. Fortunately, his current situation is not nearly as serious.
"It's very different," said Mayfield. "I had dislocated my shoulder completely, had a torn labrum, partial [tear in the] rotator cuff and cracked the bone in the socket, so it's very different. Now, it's just truly about pain tolerance management, being able to move around and being able to throw and go from there."
Mayfield said on Wednesday that he was still in pain but that the level was decreasing. Both he and Head Coach Todd Bowles said they would have to wait until the end of the week to see if he could manage the injury well enough to make his 46th consecutive start since joining the Buccaneers. If not, veteran Teddy Bridgewater would make his first start as a Buccaneer.
"It's pain tolerance and management at that point," said Mayfield. [We will] see how it goes through the week and go from there. [I] understand that we have Teddy. 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 [I] won't know that until later in the week getting practice reps and see how that goes."
Even though his current injury is not as debilitating as the one in 2021, Mayfield does understand that in the short term it could affect him to the point that he is not the team's best option on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. Whether or not that's the case won't be known until later in the week.
"I don't think I was physically able to do the things I wanted to in 2021 with a hurt shoulder," he said. "That's the biggest thing, [I] don't want to hold this team back. Obviously, each game here on out is extremely important, but Teddy [Bridgewater] is more than capable of handling this on his own. It's managing that, understanding where I am at physically and go from there.
"Where we are at right now, we're viewing the rest of these games must-win situations. [It is] just where we're at. I know it's not, theoretically, but that's how we're viewing it, that's how we're approaching it and for me, like I said, if I am physically able to go, then I'll do it, but I won't know that until I get practice reps and I am able to throw the ball later on in the week."
