The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got off to a hot start this season, with a 5-1 record. Turns out they’ll need every part of as they’ve stumbled lately, losing 3 of their last 4 games to drop to 6-4, including consecutive losses the last 2 weeks.
Even worse? Both of those losses have come after their bye in Week 11.
After their latest setback, in a 44-32 road loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 11, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons questioned if there might be something physically wrong with 2-time Pro Bowl quarterback Baker Mayfield.
“I would believe, if you gave me all the QBS and said one of these guys is hiding an injury, Mayfield would be my pick,” Simmons said on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” on Sunday, November 16. “It’s like, ‘Oh, he has a torn labrum’ or like some sort of really bad injury we don’t know about. Because it also seems like he doesn’t want to run with the same zest. So it’s also like maybe he has like a hairline fracture of his left collarbone or something like that.”
While it’s purely speculative to say Mayfield might be hurt, anyone who has watched him play over the last month has to wonder what happened to the freewheeling player who thrust himself into the NFL MVP conversation over the first 6 weeks of the regular season.
The numbers also back up that something has changed. Before the Bills game, Mayfield didn’t have a single rushing yard in the previous 3 games after essentially (for him) running wild over the first 6 weeks.
Against the Bills, Mayfield had 5 carries for 39 yards and his first rushing touchdown of the season — one he paid for dearly. Mayfield, who is still averaging 7.3 yards per carry, finished 16-of-28 passing for 173 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception in the loss to Buffalo.
“Baker Mayfield has now gone three straight games without a single rush attempt,” MB Fantasy Life’s Ian Hartitz wrote on his official X account before the Buccaneers played the Bills. “Was averaging 26 rush yards/game in Weeks 1-6. Popped up on injury report with a knee issue in Week 8, oblique added in Week 10. Probs playing through something we’ll find out more about in January.”
If it turns out Mayfield has actually been playing hurt, it would be on brand for both how he approaches the game — he’s one of the NFL’s toughest players — and for how things have gone for the Buccaneers to this point in terms of injuries.
” … Bucs had six players get 500+ yards of offense last year, and two played Sunday,” Fox Sports NFL reporter Greg Auman wrote on his official X account on November 16. “The other four — Bucky Irving, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Jalen McMillan — have played 10 of a potential 40 games this season.”
After getting off to such a hot start, Mayfield is on track to have his numbers dip significantly from 2024, when he threw for career highs of 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns to go with 16 interceptions.
At his current pace, Mayfield would finish the 2025 regular season with approximately 4,020 passing yards, 29 touchdowns and a career low 5 interceptions.
Anyone who has played competitive sports at any level knows what it’s like to lose a game you feel like your team should’ve won. And all of us have been in a position where in the aftermath of that loss, we’ve said something about the game itself or the quality of opponent we just faced that, in retrospect, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
I start with this qualifier because it’s important to keep that in mind as we take a look at what Tennessee Titans star Jeffery Simmons had to say after his team lost a heartbreaker on a game-winning kick as time expired to the Houston Texans on Sunday afternoon.
“I’m tired of losing. That team is not better than us. I don’t care what people say,” Simmons declared postgame, per Jim Wyatt of TennesseeTitans.com. “They have some good players, but we should have won that game. We have to stop beating ourselves.”
In total, that quote is comprised of 35 words and 5 sentences. 28 of those words and 4 of those sentences, I’m not prepared to dispute.
I’m tired of losing –
Yeah, that checks out. I would be too if I were on a team that was, let me check my math real quick, 7-30 in their last 37 games.
I don’t care what people say
– Jeffery Simmons is one of the best defensive linemen alive, he’s a millionaire, and he’s only 28 years old. I wouldn’t care what other people had to say either if I were in that position.
They have some good players, but we should have won that game – The Texans do indeed have no shortage of good players, but yet, I agree with Simmons when he says that the Titans could make the argument that they should’ve won Sunday’s game.
We have to stop beating ourselves – Simmons was particularly peeved about the four false starts called on the Titans offensive line against the Texans, but this is a trend that has plagued Tennessee all season long.
It’s that one sentence — That team is not better than us — that I’m going to respectfully push back on, because by essentially any metric you can find, this isn’t true.
Edge
Texans
Category
Titans
Edge
X
5-5
Record
1-9
X
6.7-3.3
Expected W/L
1.8-8.2
X
+57
Point Differential
-130
X
5.1
Yards Per Play
4.2
X
4.6
Yards Per Play Allowed
5.7
X
+7
Turnover Margin
-4
X
222.0
Passing Yards Per Game
163.6
X
107.6
Rushing Yards Per Game
78.9
X
36.0%
3rd Down Conversion Rate
29.8%
X
89.5%
Team Field Goal Percentage
80.0%
X
6
Players in the 2025 NFL Top 100
0
X
2
Players Named AFC POTW in 2025
0
X
42-13
Head to Head Scoring Margin in 2025
13-42
X
2
Head to Head Wins in 2025
0
1
Head Coaches in 2025
2
X
I could keep going, but I don’t really think I need to. We’re on the same page, right?