Lavonte David: Baker Mayfield Struggled With Significant Injuries
April 4th, 2026
Clearer truths are coming out.
Why did Baker Mayfield go from MVP candidate in September and October last year to an average-at-best starter in the second half of the season?
There are lots of reasons, but the extent of Mayfield’s injuries and how they were affecting him were unclear.
Retired Bucs linebacker Lavonte David shed light on that yesterday during his sitdown with The Arena. David said “the season’s over now, I can talk about it.”
“Man, Baker was going through a lot, bro,” David said. “Baker had a lot of injuries that you didn’t expect a quarterback to play through. You know what I’m saying? He had the oblique injury, he had the shoulder injury, he had a lot of things. You know, ankle injury, knee injury. … He was really trying to push through and really trying to be the player that we needed him to be.”
David said he thought Baker played ok late in the season but throwing to rookies and missing key players, including offensive linemen, is a massive challenge. David suspected Emeka Egbuka needed more time to adjust to being the team’s No. 1 receiver and drawing massive attention from defenses.
Mayfield playing “lights out” early in the season and tailing off is an indicator, per David, as to how much he was hurting physically.
Then former Bucs cornerback Aqib Talib said he could hear in David’s voice that team morale had slipped because of so many injuries and bubbling frustration, including from Todd Bowles. David said he could agree with that sentiment.