Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield is tough. Very tough. Perhaps tough to a fault.
Via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, Mayfield reveals in the upcoming season of Quarterback that, in 2025, he played with a sprained MCL and PCL in his knee from Week 2 on.
Mayfield also had a “bad biceps contusion” in his throwing arm, and he injured the shoulder of his non-throwing arm.
If Mayfield had a knee injury for that much of the season, it didn’t show up in the injury reports. “Knee” wasn’t listed at all until Week 8.
Here’s the full breakdown of the 10 weeks in which Mayfield appeared on the injury report: Week 3 (foot/toe), Week 4 (right biceps), Week 5 (right knee/biceps), Week 8 (knee), Week 10 (knee/oblique), Week 12 (illness), Week 13 (left shoulder), Week 14 (left shoulder), Week 15 (left shoulder), Week 18 (right shoulder/knee).
It underscores the fact that the NFL’s injury-reporting rules don’t contain nearly enough information. Sometimes, players simply don’t tell the team about their injuries. Sometimes, players get treatment away from the team’s facility.
Regardless, at a time when inside information has become a problem when it comes to gambling in other sports, every story about a player being more injured than the official reports revealed becomes another situation in which someone who knew the hidden truth can misappropriate the knowledge.
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