The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are getting their starting quarterback back in the lineup. Bucs head coach Todd Bowles confirmed on Friday that Baker Mayfield is ready to go for the team's Week 7 game against the division rival Carolina Panthers. Bowles said Mayfield practiced in full, as if it were a normal week.
Mayfield has missed the last three games after dislocating his right (throwing) thumb back in Week 3 against the Minnesota Vikings. In his return to the field, he will wear a special glove with a restrictive plate on the back of his thumb so that it does not bend the wrong way, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The Times reported that the glove was designed by Tampa Bay Rays clubhouse attendant Nick Bond.
Bond ripped the thumb off a wide receiver's glove and inserted a support in its place. "(It's) not restricting because it's on the backside," Mayfield said this week, per the Times. "For me, just getting used to it.
I don't feel the difference. It's just like me wearing a glove." Undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels has been filling in for Mayfield during his three-week absence, going 1-2 in his three starts while completing 60 of 95 passes for 501 yards, three touchdowns and four interceptions. He rushed 19 times for 117 yards in those games. (He also went 0 of 3 with an interception and one rush for nine yards at the end of the game against Minnesota.) Mayfield struggled during the first three games of the season, completing 63.5% of his passes at an average of 6.4 yards per attempt, with only two touchdowns and two interceptions.
He will likely not have his No. 1 wide receiver on the field this weekend, as Emeka Egbuka is listed as doubtful due to a concussion and foot injury. Mayfield will have to show considerable improvement from his early-season performance in order to get the Bucs back into the NFC South race, and that process will likely have to start without his top target on the field.
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