Despite Bucs Missing Three (Four?) Offensive Starters, Todd Bowles Isn’t Worried About Baker Mayfield
August 31st, 2025
“I trust you, ‘Bake.'”
We know the Bucs offense will be down three starters on offense come next Sunday when the Bucs travel to Atlanta to face the Dixie Chicks.
It’s Week 1 and the Bucs actually may be down four starters. Tight end Cade Otton has a mysterious leg injury on top of a tender hamstring that cost him a couple of weeks of practice in training camp.
Joe is morbidly curious to see the first injury report of the season on Wednesday, just to see what is wrong with Otton.
Four starters (maybe) is third of the first team. Tristan Wirfs, Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan are out. Otton, if he misses the game, would be the fourth.
Last week Bucs coach Todd Bowles was asked about Mayfield and his preparation down so many key players. Bowles all but said Mayfield may be the last guy he loses sleep over.
“Baker is a pro – he’s going to do whatever he has to do to win and whoever’s in there, we’ll make the adjustments offensively and we’ve got to play,” Bowles said. “I mean, [injuries are] part of the game.
“[Injuries are] going to happen. We don’t stress too much about who’s playing. If you make the team, it’s for a reason and if there are wide outs that hadn’t played and people go down, we expect them to step up and play.”
Even though the Bucs lost all three of their games last year with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin off the field, those losses can’t be hung on Mayfield. He brought the Bucs back at Kansas City and at home against San Francisco.
Mayfield wasn’t the guy who decided not to go for two late and instead dare Patrick Mahomes to win the game on his home turf in overtime.
It wasn’t Mayfield whose defense let the 49ers race downfield in the final seconds and kick a game-winning field goal as time ran out.
Bowles is right. If Mayfield is on the field, he will scratch and claw his way to put the Bucs in position to win.
August 31st, 2025 at 8:14 am
Unrelated post… Trask was an old backup with no live in game experience. Teddy was an old backup who had been a starter in the NFL. No brainer. I would find a cheap young QB for the practice squad though. Or bring back Greene who played QB.in college but is switching to WR similar to What Gronk did.
Related; i like your points about Baker fighting and clawing like a cornered Mountain Lion. Also Bakes does not play favorites. If you are open he throws to you. This us an opportunity young receivers.
August 31st, 2025 at 8:21 am
I guess it will be time to test that revamped defense.
August 31st, 2025 at 8:23 am
I think it may be a little loose with the word “starter” when it comes to J-Mac. I don’t consider the Falcons being down two starting linemen because the 2nd string RT is also out.
August 31st, 2025 at 8:26 am
Really terrific and truthful article about Baker. His contributions to Bucs are enormous. Next time the usual chorus of idiots start their typical Mayfield harangue, is it possible to link them directly to this article? Thanks, Joes.
August 31st, 2025 at 8:28 am
I hope that Mayfield has the right mix of responsibility and restraint with Grizzard. I am concerned with Grizz being a new OC, and not a terribly experienced one at that, that it doesn’t undermine the coach player hierarchy. I don’t see Baker as a game caller. I see him as a plan executor and a guy that, like the article says scratches and claws to get it done. Hopefully he feels comfortable in the scheme and the balance puts the right amount on everyone’s plate.
August 31st, 2025 at 8:30 am
Agreed. We’re down two true starters… Wirfs & Godwin.
Wirfs is the more impactful of the two since he usually plays almost every O snap and is all world. Godwin is being replaced by J-Mac or EE one way or another. The silver lining… coaches have known this for a while and have prepared. Atlanta’s injured OTs are a lot newer and fresher. Otton would be missed but I don’t think we have a ton of drop off skill wise behind him.
August 31st, 2025 at 8:38 am
So EE switching to Jersey # 2
Now we know why they cut Trask.
I feel bad for all those that jumped the gun and paid $150 for #9 jerseys
August 31st, 2025 at 9:05 am
Many NFL teams would love to have our WR’s the Bucs have, even while missing Godwin and JMac. Evans, EE, and Shepard will be fine. I bet EE will be in contention for rookie of the year.
August 31st, 2025 at 9:14 am
That just means the defense will have to step up. Can The ReTodd motivate his group to do something meaningful or will they fold under the pressure once again? We are going to find out right away if our defense is up to the task this season..
August 31st, 2025 at 9:16 am
BM also wasn’t the one that called a timeout at Kansas City after getting a first down inside the chiefs 2 yard line on our last drive before the pull even touchdown.
And he wasn’t the one that dropped his defense back that let Purdy march his injury ridden offense down the field to win the game.
I like Todd’s strengths but man I hope you can teach on old dog new tricks this season.
August 31st, 2025 at 9:36 am
Let the excuses begin. Win or lose no excuses. Go Bucs
August 31st, 2025 at 9:46 am
The offense will be fine, it’s that defense that has to hold up it’s end of the bargain. At some point Bowlez has to go toe to toe with competent OCs and win.
August 31st, 2025 at 11:18 am
Couch Fan – oh I get it, reTodd is like retar d. Man that is clever. 🤦
August 31st, 2025 at 11:28 am
@couchfan
When the players (millionaires or soon to be) look at their paycheck deposit on Friday it should be the only motivation they need to play hard. This is a job now. This is not a college game.
SMH
Plain and simple – LFG!!!!!!!!
August 31st, 2025 at 12:00 pm
I still cannot see a path for the Bucs to win the first two games with who they currently available. I see a close loss to Atlanta and a blowout in Houston in primetime. If they can stay close to .500 by mid-season, and get back to full strength, a nice run is possible.
August 31st, 2025 at 1:13 pm
When the players (millionaires or soon to be) look at their paycheck deposit on Friday it should be the only motivation they need to play hard. This is a job now. This is not a college game.
SMH
—-
True but thats not usually how it works. Our team comes out flat more often than not, clearly something is off in the motivation department and that falls on the HC to fix and I dont hand out excuses like The ReTodd hands out starting jobs to “his guys”.
August 31st, 2025 at 1:25 pm
The Falcons have their own injury problems to deal with, also. Their starting right tackle (their QB is a lefty) is out on IR as is their backup right tackle. As of yesterday, they have not decided who will start at that key position.
August 31st, 2025 at 2:02 pm
Well, well, well, looks like the coach disagrees with some of the boys on here about ol’ Bake not able to drive late and lose games late. Like it wasn’t already known😉
August 31st, 2025 at 2:21 pm
Can the Bucs finish games this year? Joe rightly points out that it was often decision making and the lousy defense that lost some close games.
Bowles brought in the new coach to help with decision making, good! In this preseason, Bowles let some assistants call defensive plays, and Joe pointed out that they did better than Bowles! Bowles needs to turnover play calling, or at least give his coaches a bigger voice in end-of-game defensive calls. Crush ATL!
August 31st, 2025 at 2:54 pm
I hope we see Tez on the field quite a bit this week.
He can be our X-factor.
August 31st, 2025 at 3:31 pm
Durham, Sharp, a couple of seventh rounders and a couple UDFA types.
I doubt many outsiders think the receiver group is particularly good with Godwin, Otton and Macmillan out.
All’s they’ve got is an old guy who’s very good and a rookie.
August 31st, 2025 at 3:51 pm
“I hope we see Tez on the field quite a bit this week.”
Ditto. A lot of people are on about his YAC but I am much more interested to see if his reputation for creating separation with some of the same moves translates to the NFL. I don’t are bout his YAC if he is open a lot . He can even go down to protect his small frame.
August 31st, 2025 at 3:56 pm
Baker doesn’t give a rip. He resurrected his career with player’s he didn’t even know the names of . The only exception is MIke. He loves that he can put balls up and Mike will win most time on even 50/50 balls.
August 31st, 2025 at 6:14 pm
Give me a 4 game streak with no turnovers.
September 1st, 2025 at 1:10 am
If Baker can get Tez the ball in space, it will be fun watching the DB trying to catch him.
September 1st, 2025 at 6:04 am
Hope Otton can play but, like Bowles I expect Durham and Culp to do fine. Go Charlie!
Those injury reports are usually purposely vague and sometimes laughable Joe. Likely won’t now till sometime on game day what the truth of it is…If then.
Go Bucs
September 1st, 2025 at 6:51 am
Here comes the excuses from the Joe’s lol 🤣 nah remember he’s elite and according to y’all it ain’t nothing in his game that need to improve because it was always the defense fault. Great quarterbacks elevate the players around them.
September 1st, 2025 at 8:32 am
Applying the same Onielbuc rules fairly. if Herbert, Jackson, Josh, and Burrow do not win a Superbowl they should be cut.
September 1st, 2025 at 9:00 am
Marky. All of those quarterbacks played in a conference championship game and one of them actually played in a Superbowl all but one of them and he’s still young. So at least by them playing in a conference championship game gives a hope for a Superbowl. And those guys were one play away from going to the Superbowl. Baker has never played in a conference championship his whole career even when he had good teams around him.