Chris Long: Baker Mayfield’s Health Clearly Affected His Play
January 9th, 2026
Chris Long
There will be questions for years to come about the 2025 Bucs, some of which we may never get a straight answer to.
Though Joe does not know this, if Joe heard in the coming months there was a fistfight between a few coaches and players leading up to the game against the Patriots, the first game after the bye, Joe would buy it.
The Bucs team seen after the bye was a far, far cry from the team before the bye. How often do you see a team get healthier with the return of key players, and instead of improving, drop off a cliff?
Something happened with this team during the bye week around Halloween. Your guess is as good as Joe’s.
Two-time Super Bowl-winning defensive end Chris Long, speaking on his podcast this week, “Green Light,” seems to think Baker Mayfield was hurt way worse than he or the team let on and it dragged the offense down.
Long really likes Mayfield; he is just looking for answers to why the Bucs collapsed.
“There was a tweet that I said, ‘I think I trust Bryce [Young] more than Baker right now,'” Long said. “And I kind of stand on that, even though [Carolina lost to the Bucs in Week 18].”
Trusting Young more than Mayfield late in the season, Long said, is because he was convinced Mayfield’s health badly affected his ability to play strong football, and Young was not hurt.
“I don’t think Baker was healthy all year,” Long said. “I know that.”
Long pointed out a photo of Mayfield that his wife, Emily, posted to Instagram (since deleted) showing showed Mayfield wearing a wrap about his left leg the day after the win over Carolina in Week 18. That told Long all he needed to know.
“You know, he’s sitting on his kitchen table with a compression sleeve on, for sure, his knee’s jacked up, and he had a shoulder [injury], you know, [and was] on the injury report with a with a boatload of stuff.”
Being injured “doesn’t absolve” Mayfield of his subpar play the second half of the season, Long said, but did explain why Mayfield struggled.
Joe has repeatedly asked the following question rhetorically: If Mayfield was hurt so bad it rendered him ineffective, then why the hell was he on the field? Why wasn’t Teddy Bridgewater out there?
And if you’re telling Joe that Bridgewater was more worthless than a hobbled Mayfield, then why the hell was Bridgewater eating up a roster spot?
January 9th, 2026 at 12:04 am
He shouldn’t have been. We will have another backup QB next year.
January 9th, 2026 at 12:19 am
I’m sick of all the drama, the team sucked, the qb sucked hurt or not- who cares I’m over this turd. Coaches are a joke- GM sucked- reporting is weak- can’t find any answers and run propaganda and protection for the team ever other article
January 9th, 2026 at 12:23 am
But why sack Josh Grizzard if that’s the case?
Were Mayfield and Grizzard at odds perhaps…
January 9th, 2026 at 12:26 am
This is for @melvinjunior and @mikebuc lmao. Pete Golding and Chsrlie Weis Jrvare going to be successful NFL coaches one day. And guys stop relax, take a deep breath lol, it’s going to be ok. Go Bucs!
January 9th, 2026 at 12:28 am
Go get Carson Bect
January 9th, 2026 at 12:28 am
We ain’t winning a Superbowl with Baker Mayfield!!
January 9th, 2026 at 12:31 am
wow joe…you said a lot…
so it seems there was a brawl on the team that caused divide and shockwaves thru the locker room…
it explains a lot…a whole lot…
and obviously it’ll stay under wraps forever…lol
January 9th, 2026 at 12:31 am
When I was a kid, I remember this video on Americas Greatest Video, and it was these two kids, and the one kid say, “Pete and Repeat are on a boat, Pete falls off, who’s left?” The other younger kid proudly says, “Repeat.” So the older kid does, and so on and so on it goes.
It’s the same thing with Baker, every bad game, bad quarter, bad play, it’s always, “oh he’s injured.” Then the next good play, it’s “Oh see what Baker can do when he’s healthy!” Then when he’s terrible again a few plays later, it’s “oh he’s injured.” And over and over and over it repeats.
January 9th, 2026 at 12:33 am
@adam from ny, a brawl happened?? Huh this is news ? Do tell??
January 9th, 2026 at 12:34 am
Oneilbuc Says:
January 9th, 2026 at 12:28 am
Go get Carson Bect
———
I watched that full game tonight, having never watched him before – at least not more than a few passes – and I’ll pass, unless he’s super cheap (like 6th or 7th round). The way he held the ball forever reminded me of Rob Johnson. He did have some nice throws, but also had a lot of bad ones. I always thought he was very highly regarded, but I can see why he goes late in mock drafts.
January 9th, 2026 at 12:35 am
All of us already knew that. He got the crap beat out of him all year and never missed a game.
January 9th, 2026 at 12:38 am
Hey joe, so the Bucs cut the Great Kyle Joe Montana Trask to later sign and play Teddy Bridgewater lol!?? The Trask mutiny here won’t have it, got my shielo up lol…
January 9th, 2026 at 12:44 am
But, but, todd said it didn’t affect his play! bowles wouldn’t just get up there and CLEARLY LIE about a players health would he? In violation of league policies? Surely not.
January 9th, 2026 at 12:44 am
@Bobby:
i dunno…i just took what joe said in the article as a hint that some serious sh!t went down…
joe will have to spill the beans…
adam from the zoo says mums the word 🙂
January 9th, 2026 at 12:46 am
i do hope dudes threw down tho…i like wild sh!t…
wreck shop…trash the locker room…wreak havok…it’s a bucs life
January 9th, 2026 at 12:46 am
Baker Mayfield is exact what he is. A decent Qb who wants to win. Unfortunately the Bucs organization at the moment not that worried about it. When the Glazers want to the Tax payers to fork out money for stadium upgrades, Will be a change. I read a lot of the comments over the years on this site. Regardless how much you want to criticize Bowles, Our defense sucks. He does not do the drafting. Not sure That can be helped. No he is not a good head coach. But Gm overall has done a decent job, just if you just want a good offense. But how many franchises do you think really are concern about winning more than making money? The Bucs are 2 defensive draft round from really being a SB contender.
January 9th, 2026 at 1:02 am
Bowles is having a tea and crumpets for his defensive players. He’s leaving the offense to scrub the mold out of the showers.
Fire the idiot.
January 9th, 2026 at 1:15 am
I’m tired of the excuse that Mayfield played hurt. That’s nonsense, Mayfield played poorly after the bye week plain and simple.
January 9th, 2026 at 1:31 am
Still think trask should have gotten a game or 2 so we could have just seen if he had anything to his play period because the limited time he did play it was better than teddy imo
January 9th, 2026 at 1:57 am
Should’ve kept Trask and let baker sit a few games like what 49ers did. Who’s bright idea was teddy Bridgewater?
January 9th, 2026 at 2:24 am
Bucschamp, Trask could not even get off of the ATL practice squad even with Penix on the DL, he was behind Easton Stick in the ATL pecking order. granted, he might have been better than Teddy Hospital Ball but he is not a good back up either, else the ATL would have had him on thier active roster.
January 9th, 2026 at 2:45 am
Trinidad Chambliss looked really healthy tonight
January 9th, 2026 at 3:17 am
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn there was some sort of teal “fall-out” either. Something was very, very wrong with the whole team. From Jason Licht to the waterboys…something happened.
Also, Baker is well known to be adamant about playing when he shouldn’t. See 2021 Cleveland. He needs a strong head coach to controll him that inept coach who is seated upon the throne (Bowl) that bears his very name is just too weak to controll that guy or that team. He is being kept solely to prevent the tiny NFL head coaching community from appearing to be undiverse. D E I is how we die.
January 9th, 2026 at 3:22 am
Bridgewater would have fallen flat on his face. They failed the entire team with that roster decision.
January 9th, 2026 at 3:25 am
Perhaps, as Joe post the true about Baker’s health willl never be known but even knowing what folks say about making assumptions, could the truth put the Bucs on the radar to be investigated by the NFL?
January 9th, 2026 at 3:27 am
Did anyone ever find out how Baker hurt is non-throwing shoulder on a non-contact play?
January 9th, 2026 at 3:37 am
Joe … ‘If Mayfield was hurt so bad it rendered him ineffective, then why the hell was he on the field? Why wasn’t Teddy Bridgewater out there?’
We all know the answer to that question Joe, even if the Bucs won’t answer it. Three people had a hand in that decision to keep playing Baker Mayfield: Baker Mayfield himself, HC Todd Bowles and GM Jason Licht. All 3 had to agree for Baker to take the field week-after-week. All 3 SHOULD be held accountable in 1 form or another. Ain’t happening though.
Bucs’ offense averaged 29.5 PPG in 2024. In the first 8 games of 2025 we averaged 24.6 PPG (had injuries & we played some pretty good defenses, yet we still managed a 6-2 record). But we fell to 20.3 PPG average in the 9 games after the BYE. That despite the fact that our schedule got somewhat easier & our offense got healthier.
Not signing a quality veteran backup QB falls on Jason Licht & Todd Bowles. Baker was gonna want to play every single game regardless of how hurt he is … THAT’S who Baker is. Unless someone broke both his legs & arms, Baker was gonna be out there leading HIS TEAM. I personally admire that about Baker, but whether he plays or not isn’t solely HIS decision; it’s the coach’s decision first & foremost. And it’s up to the GM to provide quality DEPTH to give us a reasonable chance of winning when the injury bug strikes.
January 9th, 2026 at 4:39 am
So if Baker says he wasn’t injured, and injuries played no part in his horrible play, is he lying?
So if Baker plays the same way or worse next season, what will be the excuses then? If he was injured, why would you give a contract extension to any injury prone QB over 30 years old?
He wasn’t injured in the WC last season with a great OC and the Baker lead offense could only score 20 points. The defense only gave up 23 points but that was too much for the offense.
Excuse after excuse after excuse. Baker is going into his 4th season on his 4th team and there’s still questions on if can lead a team to a championship. We’ll see what great OC is willing to risk their career for one season to coach him.
January 9th, 2026 at 4:54 am
Baker has been beaten up for awhile and still plays like a “Houdini” and a scrambler even on wet fields. But he shouldn’t have to. Teddy and Kyle were not the back-ups we needed. We need a fresh backup QB from the draft. One that can go in and play when Baker is hurt and one he can mentor for the future.
January 9th, 2026 at 5:25 am
Joe doesn’t know for sure, but maybe Richard Sherman does???
Bridgetoofar was a Bowles hire and not based on talent.
Even when the playmakers started returning to the lineup, walk through practices hamstring timing – especially in the passing game.
Keeping the architect of a defense that has gotten worse each year and a coach that cannot (or will not) adjust mid season is befuddling. Bowles had to see that walk through cupcake practice wasn’t working – yet he couldn’t even change that to tune up the offense.
January 9th, 2026 at 6:10 am
Bucs should have kept Kyle Trask and played Kyle Trask for the rest of the season after Baker got hurt in the Rams game.
January 9th, 2026 at 6:10 am
I hate to stoop to the imbeciles level but, a quarterback doesnt play in 2 pro bowls, be ranked in the top 10 for 2 years and hold the #1 place for the first half of the season and have EVERYONE in the country agreeing he will be the runaway MVP candidate and falls off in his production for no reason. Just wanted to let the boys that don’t know football at all in on that little secret. You know who you are. Baker Mayfield is the shizz. He plays all season injured or not. That is worth a lot of money right there. And if you are still saying we can’t win a superbowl with Mayfield, well I feel sorry for your significant other.
January 9th, 2026 at 6:32 am
Bee Says:
January 9th, 2026 at 4:39 am
“So if Baker says he wasn’t injured, and injuries played no part in his horrible play, is he lying?
So if Baker plays the same way or worse next season, what will be the excuses then? If he was injured, why would you give a contract extension to any injury prone QB over 30 years old?
He wasn’t injured in the WC last season with a great OC and the Baker lead offense could only score 20 points. The defense only gave up 23 points but that was too much for the offense.
Excuse after excuse after excuse. Baker is going into his 4th season on his 4th team and there’s still questions on if can lead a team to a championship. We’ll see what great OC is willing to risk their career for one season to coach him.”
Wah wah wah. You have complained ad nauseam about Mayfield. It is long past getting old
January 9th, 2026 at 7:00 am
BS, his noodle arm, and his awareness, effective his game play, stop trying to find more excuses for this little guy……he’s terrible and will always be terrible! what’s his win-loss percentage rate? Yeah TERRIBLE!!! We need a new QB! Let’s go Bucs!! Baker will never win a Super Bowl
January 9th, 2026 at 7:03 am
Can someone explain to me how rankings and stats lead to wins? Do rankings and stats improve accuracy and stop turnovers? How did those rankings and stats help Baker down the stretch when he was one of the worst QBs in football?
The reason his play fell off is because he fell off. We watched his mediocre skills deteriorate before our very eyes.
Don’t worry, Baker won’t play that way next season, he’ll be worse. And I’ll have my popcorn ready for the next set of excuses yall have for him. Baker will help Bowles get a top 10 pick for the Bucs.
January 9th, 2026 at 7:39 am
If hurt, then why not bench him to recover? If you’re on the field then the excuses stop. Several time he took a tackle scrambling. Hurt qb slide and avoid getting by going out of bound. Nothing is making sense at all with the narrative and acts being the polar opposite.
January 9th, 2026 at 8:00 am
Instead of having the bye week off, Bowles should have had Teddy B prepping to play a couple games after the bye. The Patriots and Bills weren’t must wins being AFC opponents, perhaps the Rams game too. There is no universe in which we were going to beat L.A. on Sunday Night Football anyway. Could have let Baker get 3 to 4 weeks of rest. Maybe he would have been healthy for those final 6 must win games. Head coaches need to see the season as a whole.
January 9th, 2026 at 8:06 am
Bee. I agree with you 💯 percent I’ve been fair with Baker giving him his credit when he played good and criticize him when he played bad . I even gave him a pass against the eagles and another team. But he’s put together 7 bad games in a row by throwing late 4th quarters picks that either lost the games or changed the momentum of the game and that was just one game against the falcons. He’s 1-9 in prime time games so Monday night games, Sunday night games and Thursday night games will be all losses if we play on those days and times. He is not a franchise quarterback!!
January 9th, 2026 at 8:08 am
If his knee is truly “jacked up” and needs surgery then do it now, not in July like Wirfs did. He wasn’t right all season.
January 9th, 2026 at 8:17 am
they got healthy, but is it possible that a healthy evans and godwin aren’t anywhere close to the evans and godwin of 2020?
January 9th, 2026 at 8:20 am
IE bucs. Baker wasn’t hurt and Bowles got rid of Trask because he was afraid Trask would play better than him .
January 9th, 2026 at 8:22 am
Coltol. Baker is trash and it doesn’t matter how y’all try to spin it he’s showing all of y’all why he’s on his 4th team.
January 9th, 2026 at 8:39 am
Bee Says:
January 9th, 2026 at 7:03 am
Can someone explain to me how rankings and stats lead to wins? Do rankings and stats improve accuracy and stop turnovers? How did those rankings and stats help Baker down the stretch when he was one of the worst QBs in football?
How exactly was Baker “one of the worst QB’s in football”? Most comments on this site about the second half of the season are centered on Baker. Yes, he threw a couple of pics that potentially cost us the win but he is still rated 12th in QBR with notables like Sam Darnold, Aaron Rogers, Bryce Young, Jalen Hurts Treavor Lawrence and Caleb Williams (all playoff QB’s) rated lower that Baker.
The answer to the second half of the season is very poor offensive line play mostly attributable to oft injured or IR starters (many games they had only two preseason starters suited up) and injuries to the running backs and wide receivers. One of the games we lost we played with all five starting wideouts not playing.
I expect there will be disagreements about injuries causing poor play from Baker. Consider this: Patrick Mahomes and Jared Goff had rather poor seasons with losses attributable to poor QB play. The difference between this season and last season for Patrick and Jared is poor offensive lines due to injuries this year and injuries to running backs and wide outs.
January 9th, 2026 at 8:41 am
C ya cleanhose
January 9th, 2026 at 8:44 am
If Mayfield was hurt worse than acknowledged that’s on Bowles poor leadership that playing him over Teddy Brighwarer probably cost the Bucs the Division. Bowles is the leader of the team. Playing Mayfield had to have cost the Bucs a couple of games.
That’s Stupidity
January 9th, 2026 at 8:52 am
Playing for an idiot, a maroon, and a potato didn’t help Baker much either.
January 9th, 2026 at 9:09 am
folks will find any excuse for baker!!!!!
baker was no more “injured” than any other player in the NFL…
im sure every player in the league went home after a game and was wrapped up in ice…
baker is average!!!!
the only way to win with baker is to have an elite defense, elite run game and above average special teams
GO BUCS!!!!
January 9th, 2026 at 9:12 am
Bucsfan2023
Sir, imo hes one of the worst QBs down the stretch because he lost 5 out of 7 games. Your narrative about the OL doesn’t hold much water because Baker ranked 16th in time to throw. Better than several QBs who are in the playoffs right now.
Tell me sir, how does QBR lead to wins? How does QBR help Baker not underthrow EE and get the ball picked? How does QBR help Baker not throw the ball at Godwins feet on 3rd down in multiple games? Tell me…
Excuse, after excuse, after excuse. He missed open WRs throwing high and low and short of the 1st down but yall want to blame the OC and OL.
Baker’s time is running out. If hes a good as you say he is, the Bucs would be playing this weekend.
January 9th, 2026 at 10:02 am
Bee, the what could, would and should have been is already flowing the present to the past! So, is Baker, “is” the worst QB in the NFL or “was” the worst QB in the NFL? With that, 01-09-2026, how do you see the worst QB preforming in 2026?
January 9th, 2026 at 10:37 am
Bee Says:
January 9th, 2026 at 9:12 am
Bucsfan2023
Sir, imo hes one of the worst QBs down the stretch because he lost 5 out of 7 games. Your narrative about the OL doesn’t hold much water because Baker ranked 16th in time to throw. Better than several QBs who are in the playoffs right now.
Tell me sir, how does QBR lead to wins? How does QBR help Baker not underthrow EE and get the ball picked? How does QBR help Baker not throw the ball at Godwins feet on 3rd down in multiple games? Tell me…
Excuse, after excuse, after excuse. He missed open WRs throwing high and low and short of the 1st down but yall want to blame the OC and OL.
Baker’s time is running out. If hes a good as you say he is, the Bucs would be playing this weekend.
The Bucs aren’t playing this weekend because of third down and 28. Nothing Baker ever did this season was a putrid as that. All the defense had to do was get the ball back when it was third and 28 and we win and in the playoffs. In all but one of the games they lost the Bucs had the lead in the fourth quarter. Defense failed and we get the ball back with very little time left. Superman is supposed to save the day once again.
Your narrative on time to throw is a meaningless statistic. Throw to who? Sterling Shepard? Have you completely forgotten the second half of the season had multiple wide receivers and running backs out with injuries. The offensive line was so bad they couldn’t get one yard four times in a row multiple times. Your comment about Godwin is also meaningless without context. Was he throwing the ball away to avoid being sacked?
January 9th, 2026 at 12:45 pm
It seems like they are saying this every year. I think he’s just a good but streaky player.
January 9th, 2026 at 2:20 pm
813bucboy I am quite certain as usual you have no clue whatsoever about what you are talking about by saying Baker was no more injured than any other NFL player. You are one of those that just says whatever comes into that pea sized brain of yours and everybody is suppose to agree with your twisted sense of reality. Once again you haters just say things that are either totally false or there is no way of proving it. Either way it cast a bad light on our quarterback and that of course is what you are after. Try hovering in reality for once.
January 9th, 2026 at 2:51 pm
You tell old Bee Bee how it really is Bucfan2023. This is how the haters operate, since we aren’t in the playoffs, “it’s Bakers fault”. They purposefully ignore the fact that Baker carried the team on his shoulders the first 6 games of which we would have won maybe 2 without him playing so well all the analysts agreed he would be MVP this year if he continued to play at his current level. Then he DID get hurt. I remember the Bois saying he has to come from behind on these sorry teams. Well as usual they were even wrong about that simple comment. Turns out a couple of those teams were pretty good. 4 of those 6 are in the playoffs. One has the best defense in all of the league and Baker dismantled them piece by piece and made them look like a college team in the last minute, without 2 of his best WR.. Another fact they love to ignore is that we had a rookie OC who did so bad they fired him after just 1 year. For that to happen, the evidence must have been glaring. But hey who needs a good OC, right?These people are insufferable to put it mildly.
January 9th, 2026 at 3:12 pm
2 turnstile backup backup backup guards are why Baker didn’t look so hot in the second half of the season. I’ve mentioned this before, but Feeney and Jordan were being dumped in his lap on virtually every single play. And very rapidly at that. Watch the games again and watch how rapidly they get pushed back.
If you can’t step into your passes in a timing offense where does that leave you? On a sinking ship, that’s where. We need a talent infusion on the defense and more O-line depth. The season is a war of attrition.
January 9th, 2026 at 4:37 pm
Kinda sucks that Baker was subpar for the last half of the season, but I think the fact there’s no sufficient backup is more concerning. I wouldn’t say he’s to blame for the losses 100% because it seems insane to think he was going to be perfect and carry the team all year, and I’ll point something else out, if it weren’t for some lucky plays in the first half of the season, the Bucs would likely have half as many wins. The issue is the Bucs need to get better on every side of the ball, as that’s been the biggest issue with the whole season. Could Baker have managed to add wins by avoiding picks like earlier in the season? Sure, but why is he the only one that needs to put forth effort? I think everything stagnated with the whole team and when you constantly run the same routes, I’m honestly not surprised teams figured out how to get those last minute picks.
January 9th, 2026 at 5:20 pm
Wow astonishing said by a whole bunch of potatoes that never took a first string snap at QB in a high school game – never mind the NFL