“Everybody Knows We’re Not Going To Have Tristan For A Little Bit”
August 6th, 2025
Status for Week 1 revealed?
Some Bucs fans had their fears realized from the words of Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield this afternoon. Will it turn into all fans’ worst fears?
When Mayfield had his sitdown with the NFL’s it-girl Kay Adams at One Buc Palace on her FanDuel TV training camp tour, Mayfield revealed the secret many Bucs fans feared would become reality about the status of left tackle Tristan Wirfs.
“Obviously, everybody knows we’re not going to have Tristan for a little bit at the beginning of the year,” Mayfield said.
Mayfield did not elaborate how long “little bit” is expected to be. But it seems clear to Joe that Wirfs will not be on the field when the Bucs take on the Dixie Chicks to open the regular season.
Another piece of news Mayfield offered is that his hand injury was not one injury. And it did not involve shoulder pads.
Instead, Mayfield said he banged his throwing hand on teammates’ helmets twice. Last week Bucs coach Todd Bowles hinted Mayfield’s injury progressed over a period of time but was not specific.
August 6th, 2025 at 7:08 pm
Will the league start forcing QBs to play wearing oven mitts?
August 6th, 2025 at 7:17 pm
It’s so Bucs to decide not to do the surgery in Feb, but rather wait until now so we don’t have our best player on the field for the critical first games.
Brilliant.
August 6th, 2025 at 7:17 pm
I didn’t think they’d put him on field turf the first two games. I’m hoping he can play starting week three at home against the Jets. We’ll find out when they cut to 53, and whether he’s put on the PUP. Wish he would’ve had the knee done at the end of the season. It is what it is.
August 6th, 2025 at 7:17 pm
Fire the head Athletic trainer!
August 6th, 2025 at 7:19 pm
This is actually a smart theory.
August 6th, 2025 at 7:23 pm
Good thing he waited for that surgery
So he can be nice and rested for down the stretch….
August 6th, 2025 at 7:24 pm
Well at least Mayfield knows in August that he’s got to worry about his blindside come Opening day. Hopefully the new OC has a game plan and a scheme dialed up to protect Mayfield.
To think management knew we were losing our OC, they knew our Righthand QB had a LT with a bum knee and thought it prudent until the start of training season to address it. They clearly had 100% confidence in a LT backup yet on the Roster, they had 100% confidence in back up QB Trask, now went out and hired a QB off the street.
Damn so excited for football since we came out flat against the Cammandos in ly playoffs. I just hope management didn’t screw up our 2025 season by being so negligent back in March 2025. We could have fixed this concern almost 6 months ago.
Stay alive Baker, do your best Fran Tarkenton impression, overcome poor management. The team and Tampa see what they did.
August 6th, 2025 at 7:43 pm
I was thinking game three as well.
As to Mayfield, we now have a super fragile experience backup…who will probably get injured in preseason.
August 6th, 2025 at 7:44 pm
“Stupid is as stupid does.” Bucs Athletic Training Staff
August 6th, 2025 at 7:50 pm
If you play him week 2 on a Monday night you have a short week to heal after his first game.
August 6th, 2025 at 8:20 pm
Agree with most. Whoever was handling Wirfs rehab should be fired. And possibly beaten.
If you need surgery, you need surgery. Get it over with, so he can be ready for the season.
Just a bad, bad job of injury management.
August 6th, 2025 at 8:20 pm
For the Bucs when they says player is week to week, it really means that the player will be out for 8 games. Progressing nicely means out all season…. Sorry, but I don’t believe a word of what the Bucs say when it comes to player injuries or progress in healing.
August 6th, 2025 at 8:47 pm
They don’t know when he will be available
They are guessing as much as us
August 6th, 2025 at 9:17 pm
Whatever they do – don’t rush Wirfs back – and don’t drop Mayfield back for long developing passes as much until he is. Change the offense into a short-area passing Dolphins styled attack until Wirfs is back in the fold. If Bowles and the defense do their job like we expect – they can win with 20-24 points a game until things get back to normal.
August 6th, 2025 at 9:23 pm
who cares what you concession stand kings think…
big tristan will be back when that new bionic knee gets shipped from china…
the taxes and tariffs are insane, and the only one to blame is the orange man…
even lee majors is waiting on a new knee in heaven because of the donald
August 6th, 2025 at 9:27 pm
joe:
we need a podcast right about now 🙂
August 6th, 2025 at 10:07 pm
Adam:
Scheduled to record one Thursday afternoon.
August 6th, 2025 at 10:07 pm
Surgery is ALWAYS last option
August 6th, 2025 at 10:53 pm
Yup. Joe has zero issue with what happened. Docs thought they could heal Wirfs without surgery. His knee didn’t respond.
If the Bucs aren’t going to listen to the advice of their medical staff, why have them?
August 7th, 2025 at 6:34 am
Yeah sure. We’ll see how you rigorously defend the keystone cops medical staff when the team starts the year 0-2 or 1-3 because of the brilliant strategy of waiting 2 weeks before training camp to tell us Wirfs needs surgery from an injury suffered last season. Receipts will be provided when that happens.
August 7th, 2025 at 6:56 am
Not sure if the medical staff is to blame for anything, but fans have to realize that Wirfs is the only one with the final say when it comes to surgery. It’s very likely he wanted to try healing it naturally first before going under the knife. Once they start cutting. it’s an ongoing process.
August 7th, 2025 at 7:13 am
Anyone think he reinjured his knee in the weight room?
I don’t think there’s anyway a guy that big and talented takes 3-4 months off doing nothing…
I remember he was in the weight room last April when Graham Barton arrived for his post draft presser. Fat arm Fridays anyone?
August 7th, 2025 at 9:04 am
Love peeps that think they know more than a training staff or have no medical knowledge but lets stand on the ledge and type at the top of our voice how everyone else sucks except us, brilliant, stunningly brilliant.
August 7th, 2025 at 11:40 am
The medical staff needs an overhaul, especially the training and conditioning specialists for the plethora of soft tissue (hamstring) injuries.
August 7th, 2025 at 11:43 am
Highsight is 20/20 but they should’ve had an earlier drop date for surgery
They should have had an extra cushion just in case it was something else that could only be found in a scope. Don’t tell me they didn’t know it was a possibility.
They 100% did. THAT is what I am angry about. Let’s be honest…it was poor planning ultimately based on the outcome.
August 7th, 2025 at 12:53 pm
Joe, you said a few days back that he was without crutches.
I wonder if he is all the time without crutches or just some of the times.
I still think that all the “cues” suggest that it was a grade 3 MCL tear — meaning that the PUP always made sense. Getting him back week 5 thru 10 range.