When Will Bucs Decide Who Starts At Quarterback?
November 27th, 2025
Timeline.
Sounds like this may be a game-time decision.
So the Bucs have their starting quarterback, Baker Mayfield, unable to practice yesterday as he was too “sore,” Todd Bowles said.
Mayfield sprained his left (non-throwing) shoulder in the first half of the seal-clubbing by the Rams on Sunday. He didn’t play one snap in the second half and had his left shoulder in a sling.
Bowles said yesterday backup Teddy Bridgewater will get the majority of snaps in practice this week and he will be prepared as if he is the starter.
That doesn’t mean Bridgewater will start.
Bowles said if Mayfield feels up to it, he will start.
“You’ve got to get Teddy [Bridgewater] ready to play,” Bowles said. “Obviously, Baker [Mayfield] is sore, so Teddy is going to take most of the reps this week, and we’ll see how he feels at the end of the week.
“[Mayfield] studies a lot, so if he feels good, he can go. If not, Teddy is going to take it.”
For his part, Mayfield yesterday seemed in very good spirits and said the pain in his shoulder is subsiding.
“Decreasing, for sure,” Mayfield said. “It’s pain tolerance and management at that point. [We will] see how it goes through the week and go from there.
“[I] understand that we have Teddy [Bridgewater]. 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.”
Mayfield made it very clear his current injury is totally different from when he injured his non-throwing shoulder in Cleveland. He needed surgery for that after the 2021 season.
If the Bucs do have to turn to Bridgewater, Joe sure hopes a week of practice as the starter helps him look more like an NFL quarterback than what he looked like in Los Angeles.
Joe thinks Bridgewater looked exactly how you would expect a high school coach to look if he was suddenly forced to play quarterback in the NFL.
Baker Mayfield said his dad ruined Thanksgiving Day because he lost to him in a throwing competition while he was in college at Oklahoma.#GoBucs pic.twitter.com/ItUJl4lGtq
— Kyle Burger (@kyle_burger) November 26, 2025
November 27th, 2025 at 12:26 am
From what I understand, it’s a pain tolerance issue – not a reinjury risk. If I’m wrong, let me know – I’m not making a statement, I’m just going based off the limited amount of what I read and I could be wrong. If it’s a pain tolerance issue, then there’s no way he doesn’t play.
If the Bucs win on Sunday, they’re 7-5, about to play the Saints again, which looks like they should be 8-5, and everyone is feeling dramatically better about the season as Bucky is back, Godwin is back, Evans should be getting ready to come back and even McMillian might be coming back, and things are really looking up.
However, if the Bucs are 6-6 on Sunday night, then all the doom and gloom is justified as it would be the first time all year the Bucs lost to an inferior team, and it happens during a bad slide, doubts are everywhere, and people start talking about the draft.
November 27th, 2025 at 12:42 am
‘Joe thinks that Bridgewater looked exactly how you would expect a high school coach to look if he was suddenly forced to play quarterback in the NFL.’
Excellent bottom line; kinda says it all, doesn’t it Joe.
So in a year when we thought we could finally make a run at another SB championship, it’s turned out to be nothing more than a house of cards. Or maybe just smoke & mirrors.
Bucs had no viable DEPTH … anywhere that it really counted. No backup QB who could keep us competitive if Baker got injured. No quality OLine backups in case we lost 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 of our starting OLinemen for any period of time. No OLB depth, no ILB depth, no DLine depth, and even our Secondary depth turned out to be suspect. What we had was a competitive starting lineup, UNTIL it wasn’t. Smoke & mirrors.
Folks can point fingers where they want, but in my world stocking the cupboard is the responsibility of our General Manager. He had the wherewithal to stock this team with much better DEPTH, but chose to go cheap. And heaven forbid we should bring in a couple of ‘junkyard dogs’ to light a fire under this team. Anyone else notice how quiet this team is right now? Can you imagine Sapp saying ‘steady as she goes’ after losing 3 straight games like we just did? Or Hardy saying ‘We’ll get ’em next game guys’?
November 27th, 2025 at 12:49 am
most have tuned you out muncher…all you want to do is argue and name call….other than that, what do you actually have to offer?
sheesh!
I think they try to play Baker and he leaves early and then its downhill from there.
November 27th, 2025 at 1:03 am
@DR – summed it up pretty well overall, though I would argue we did have depth on offense, we were just ravaged by injuries. I mean when your #4 WR becomes your #1 due to injuries, how much more depth can you expect any team to have? We had depth at RB… And even on the o-line, we had 1 or 2 backups ready, but the problem was we needed 4 backups to be able to play like starters at various points… it’s just not realistic.
Backup QB is the one I can’t look past. And I was p1ssed we didn’t get anyone at the trade deadline, but I think the past few weeks have shown us that 1 player probably wasn’t going to make the difference (unless maybe it was a stud WR).
Because our defense is straight up trash. Every level is weak. As is the entire team mentality as you alluded to. And on that last one- well that’s on the head coach. Our HC ducks his responsibility by saying the team has to find it’s edge, rather than him bring the edge. It starts at the top. He makes nonstop BS excuses for his underperforming defense over and over. I’m effing sick of it.
November 27th, 2025 at 1:44 am
Let’s see some more behind the back passes from Bridgewater. I’m excited!
November 27th, 2025 at 1:52 am
Baker will go, even if he is so limited that he can’t make intermediate and long throws. I think they will look at the Card game as must win, kind of like when Baker beat Carolina 9-0 to win the division in week 17 of 2023. Baker was crippled but the coaches trusted him over Trask. If they feel this way about Teddy B as well, Baker will take a needle and start.
November 27th, 2025 at 2:50 am
Why give the Cards a heads up?
Bridgewater is gonna start.
We have no chance of winning, for the third straight week.
And yes, I posted here the last two weeks- that we had no chance.
I had thought that we could run the tables on all of our remaining games.
But this team can’t win without Mayfield.
But now, the way the defense has just suffered total collapse- I’m not sure we can win these games WITH Mayfield.
November 27th, 2025 at 5:10 am
Teddy is a nice guy, but had been away from the NFL as a high school coach. And before that he was on several teams so he does have the experience. Baker will want to play, but really should rest it out. It’s an up and down situation, until we know exactly who will be our QB. And who knows, Teddy could surprise us.
November 27th, 2025 at 5:51 am
Todd chose Dreaddy to be the vet who could step in, and with his vet savvy win us some games. He better be right. He hasn’t been right about his defensive players who’ve under performed we’ll see if he’s right with Dreaddy. Baker plays, and gets hurt, we’re in trouble. Todd better be right.
November 27th, 2025 at 6:26 am
Really hope Baker gets a minimum a week off to heal up everything. Regardless ot what Baker says, Bowles should take charge and let his most important player get ready for the stretch run. Also waiting for Bredeson and other players get back could save Baker from getting injured again. Bowles should understand it’s ok to lose the battle in order to win the war
November 27th, 2025 at 6:36 am
Well, we all see and HAVE seen in the past how well Baker plays when he is injured. I’d start Teddy and when things start going south (most likely before halftime), bring in Baker for most likely a needed spark.
November 27th, 2025 at 6:42 am
The brilliance of exchanging Trask for Bridgewater is unmatched. I was never a Trask guy, but I refuse to believe Bridgewater, at this stage, is better.
November 27th, 2025 at 6:45 am
Joe, I’ll bet my Prius against your Land Rover Baker starts. He WILL play. Maybe not the whole game, but he’ll start and be fine.
November 27th, 2025 at 6:54 am
While the headline reads “When will Bucs decide…” don’t kid yourself. They already know the answer. It’s more like when will they let us know.
November 27th, 2025 at 6:57 am
It will be hard to keep Mayfield out of the game. That’s just who he is! The Bucs need this win badly so maybe rest him for part of the Saints game.
November 27th, 2025 at 7:02 am
the cardinals are fast and they have a good pass rush, they’ve kept games close. the bucs are coming off horrible games. i have no confidence in them. the cardinals have not figured out how to win games late, maybe an ugly game
November 27th, 2025 at 7:17 am
Perhaps you start Whoopie Goldberg and if he stinks, THEN put Baker in.
November 27th, 2025 at 7:42 am
Corn’s got the plan – start Whoopie and go to Baker if needed.
November 27th, 2025 at 8:03 am
So Baker would come in on the 2nd series.
November 27th, 2025 at 8:10 am
I kinda doubt that it really matters who starts today, although I hope that it’s Bridgewater (with Baker dressing but in reserve). It’s the game plan that’s most important today, AND what other players are back to start.
Our current OLine has now had the last 3 games together, so they should be ‘gelling’ more & more. They’ve actually been doing quite well with run-blocking, and that’s where we really need to focus today. With Bucky back, and Rachaad & Tuck running quite well, I fully expect today will be a very heavy RUN day.
Have no idea what defense is gonna show up, but all the excuses are getting very old. If what you’re doing isn’t working (and it certainly hasn’t been working), then do something different. Plug in a few different players, whatever.
November 27th, 2025 at 8:13 am
Teddy Bridgewater was on the Lions roster in 2003 and 2004 as Jared Goff’s backup. In 2004 he came in for Goff when Goff was being evaluated for a concussion and led the team to a touchdown.
People tend to repeat what others say. That isn’t always accurate.
With prep he can still play. Hopefully Baker can go Sunday.
November 27th, 2025 at 8:52 am
From what I’ve read, a grade 1 ac joint sprain involves stretched ligaments but no tears. However, there is pain obviously along with a loss of strength in that shoulder along with loss of range of motion and that is what makes re-injury or aggravation a real possibility. Supposedly, Jordan Love played last week with the same injury in the same shoulder. Remarkably, Joe Flacco has the same injury but in his throwing shoulder and played with it last week. How both of those guys were impacted by the injury, I don’t know but the Packers won last week and the Bengals lost.
November 27th, 2025 at 9:52 am
Bridgewater wasn’t very good even when he was a starter. Don’t understand why Bucs got an over the hill QB that had no upside. Might as well have kept Trask.
November 27th, 2025 at 10:30 am
Let Baker rest, play Teddy for the next 2 weeks.
November 27th, 2025 at 10:57 am
There are 8 cfl QBs out of contract. I would give a try out to Chris Streveler. He player for the,Cardinals for a while and Giants too.
November 27th, 2025 at 12:50 pm
It’s Teddy. Bowles’ incompetence broke Baker. Bowles and his shatty defensive scheme NEED TO GO! AZ 30 Bucs 17. Teddy is sacked 6 times.
November 28th, 2025 at 1:34 am
When Todd announces his long awaited retirement?
November 28th, 2025 at 2:52 am
2029
November 28th, 2025 at 4:22 am
When will the Glazers realize that a historically bad pass defense that only gets worse every year might be an easier problem to fix than allowing an overconfident maroon pretend to do four jobs at once and actually does the negative cube root of said?