While encouraging, Mayfield's anticipated return doesn't represent a simple fix for the Buccaneers. Prior to his exit due to a dislocated thumb, Mayfield was mired in the most significant struggles of his career, completing 63.5 percent of his passes for 615 yards and a 2-2 TD-INT ratio while accounting for five total giveaways in three games. The nine-year veteran appeared uncomfortable and uncertain in Robinson's offense, bringing down the entire operation and leading to an 0-3 start in games in which Mayfield appeared.
Tampa Bay has since rebounded to upset the Cowboys for its first win of 2026 and nearly made it two straight before falling to Pittsburgh last week.
Mayfield has been adjusting to throwing while wearing a glove that includes reinforcement behind his thumb to prevent further damage. He's admitted the glove has changed how he grips the football, but downplayed any concerns regarding how it might affect his play.
“If there's impact, there's gonna be a pretty solid plate on the back of the glove that will prevent that," Mayfield said, assuaging injury aggravation concerns. "If there's an impact hard enough to do it again, it wouldn't matter if I had previously dislocated the joint anyway. It would happen. Anytime you dislocate something, there's gonna be ligament damage. It just didn't happen to be the ligaments and tendons that I needed surgery on. So, just giving it time to heal, doing as much as possible to come back stronger and work on that.
“And, yeah, it's football. If something like that happens, that's the nature of the game, unfortunately. But we've gotten it to a place where it's strong enough to be able to play.”
We’ll wait to see if Mayfield is given an injury designation at the end of the week, but it sure sounds as if he’s trending toward playing. For the 1-5 Buccaneers, Mayfield’s return can’t come fast enough.