Baker Mayfield is not one to sit out because of a minor injury. But Lavonte David explains just how much the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback can actually take.

In October 2025, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were 5-1, then 6-2 before the bye week. And Baker Mayfield was seriously considered an MVP candidate.

Rightly so, because the quarterback had played an extremely strong season up to that point and was a guarantee for the Bucs’ run.

But things went wrong after that. The Bucs lost seven of their next nine games and Mayfield’s performances got worse.

In the end, there wasn’t much left of the MVP calls, nor of the playoff dreams, as Tampa Bay finished the season with an 8-9 record and only second place in the NFC South.

There were many reasons for the sporting downfall. One of them was Mayfield. Probably also due to injuries, as Lavonte David revealed.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Baker Mayfield with numerous injuries

The fact that the 30-year-old was repeatedly plagued by injuries was already evident in the Injury Report, in which Mayfield, who started all 17 games, appeared ten times: Week 3 (foot/toe), Week 4 (right biceps), Week 5 (right knee/biceps), Week 8 (knee), Week 10 (knee/abdominal muscle), Week 12 (illness), Week 13 (left shoulder), Week 14 (left shoulder), Week 15 (left shoulder) and Week 18 (right shoulder/knee). Only twice was he “questionable” according to his status, in Week 4 and 13.

It was therefore unclear how much he was ultimately affected by the injuries. David hinted at that now.

“The season is over now, so I can talk about it,” the recently retired linebacker said on “The Arena”. “Baker has really been through a lot. He had a lot of injuries that you don’t expect a quarterback to even play with. He had an abdominal muscle injury, a shoulder injury, there was a lot of stuff going on. Plus ankle problems and knee problems. He really tried to fight through it and be the player we needed him to be.”

It’s also possible that injuries don’t show up in the reports because they aren’t treated. The ankle problems mentioned by David, for example, do not appear in the reports. Either way: Mayfield may be tough, but it didn’t help the Buccaneers in the end.

Written by Michael