The Tampa Bay Buccaneers received the exact news they wanted to hear regarding Baker Mayfield’s thumb injury on Monday.

The MRI came back clean. No ligament damage, no tendon damage, no surgery needed, per Todd Bowles. That opens the door to a question surrounding Jalon Daniels and his effectiveness over the next few weeks, and it brings the Buccaneers face to face with one mistake they absolutely cannot make with Mayfield’s injury.

Baker Mayfield’s injury timeline and the NFC South picture

Bowles told reporters Monday that Mayfield will miss a minimum of 3 weeks. That automatically knocks him out for this week’s game against the Packers, next week’s Thursday night matchup against the Dallas Cowboys, and the Week 6 game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The earliest he could return is Week 7 against the Carolina Panthers.

I know you’re going to laugh and roll your eyes when I say this, but it’s true: The Buccaneers are still in the playoff race despite their disastrous 0-3 start, and that’s just because the NFC South is as putrid as we thought it would be. The team(s) sitting at the top of the mountain only have one win. If Tampa Bay finds a way to get through Mayfield’s absence and he does return against Carolina, who knows what will be on the table at that point?

The Buccaneers might be able to claw themselves right back to the top of the division.

Buccaneers can’t afford to let Mayfield’s injury play into Todd Bowles’ end-of-year evaluation

So, with all that being said, the one mistake the Buccaneers cannot make with Baker Mayfield’s injury is allowing it to play a heavy hand in Todd Bowles’ evaluation at the end of the season.

If the Buccaneers don’t win any games with Daniels and only extend that to winning a handful once Mayfield returns, the Glazers cannot sit there and tell themselves Bowles didn’t have Baker for a stretch of very important games and therefore deserves more leniency, more benefit of the doubt, and another year. That would be a complete scam of a decision-making process, even if it comes just one year into the three-year extension Bowles signed back in 2025.

We’ve seen what the Buccaneers look like with Mayfield at the helm for three games: 0-3. We saw what he was in the back half of last season: 2-7. Mayfield is currently 2-10 as the Buccaneers’ starter heading into Week 4, which he obviously won’t play. All of this has centered around Bowles and his coaching style, his coaching philosophies, and how things trickle down from him to the players in that locker room. It has to be uprooted and changed if Tampa Bay continues to wade through the muck that is 2026.

I think you could make a stern argument now that unless the Buccaneers go gangbusters and finish 12-5, make a deep run, and maybe even reach the Super Bowl, Bowles has to go. That might be the only saving grace. I don’t think it’s quite at that point, but it’s as close as it’s going to get through three games.

Either way, the Buccaneers can’t let this injury weigh heavily into the decision-making process at the end of the year. And the same applies to other injuries, too. If more top players go down for a handful of games, knock on wood, or other players follow, and we see the same injury problems that crept up last season, at that point, cut bait. It’s over. It’s done.

Can Jalon Daniels keep this thing afloat?

I don’t really see a reason to say no. Yes, he’s an undrafted free agent rookie who had never taken a meaningful NFL snap before this past game. He did look good in the preseason, though, enough to take the backup job from Jake Browning. Browning didn’t have the greatest resume and didn’t do anything during the preseason, but Daniels still forced the issue enough that the Buccaneers decided to run with him and see where it went. The bet paid off, at least so far.

The key is this roster, while banged up in a few areas (Rueben Bain Jr., Josiah Trotter, Jalen McMillan, and so on), still has some pretty important pieces. Tristan Wirfs at left tackle. Luke Goedeke has been playing well. Chris Godwin and Emeka Egbuka remain decent receiving options. Bucky Irving has been playing well.

On the defensive side of the ball, we just watched a pretty underrated performance against Kyler Murray and the Vikings, even though it came without Justin Jefferson, which is worth mentioning.

Bowles talked about it during his press conference Monday. There are 21 other guys on that field who can help Daniels get through certain moments of the game. That makes total sense. Daniels doesn’t need to be Superman. He can go with the game script, make plays out of structure when called for, stay calm, keep the Buccaneers ahead of the chains, and limit the negative plays and penalties that plagued the team last week. If he does that, Tampa Bay can get through this stretch with Daniels running the show.

That would be a huge relief, not just for the coaching staff but for the fan base. At this point, you just want to win a game. Nobody wants to see this team go winless. It’s just bad for your health.

The one silver lining in all of this? We get to see Daniels play. Maybe he turns into something special. Maybe the Buccaneers have a player developing behind Mayfield who can help offset a lot of the misery and pain being felt throughout the fan base right now. That alone makes the next few weeks worth watching, even as the larger questions about Bowles’ future continue to hang over everything.