Fantasy Football Managers Should Panic Given a Baker Mayfield Shoulder Injury

Baker Mayfield suffered a shoulder injury in Week 12 Sunday Night Football. His status is up in the air and could drastically affect his Fantasy Football value.

Nov 23, 2025; Inglewood, California, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) kneels on the field with an apparent injury against the Los Angeles Rams during the second quarter at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Baker Mayfield left Sunday Night Football with a shoulder injury. This slotted in Teddy Bridgewater for the rest of the game and, of course, causes Fantasy Football managers to begin to panic. Have they lost Mayfield? Is his recent dip notable as well? Will this affect Emeka Egbuka and Chris Godwin? These are all questions that I will answer for you today ahead of the playoff push.

Injury Update: Baker Mayfield

Mayfield appears to have suffered an AC Joint sprain on Sunday Night. The injury awaits MRI results to determine the severity and timeframe that will be missed, if any. According to Jesse Morse M.D., Mayfield could miss Week 13 and be back more like Week 15. We will know more later on Monday.

Baker Mayfield

Left shoulder - AC sprain

X-rays negative, dislocation unlikely

Sprains are traditionally graded as Types (1-6), depending on severity of damage.

Type I are the mildest, minimal ligament damage and most players play through them.

Type II are moderate,… pic.twitter.com/XRw1e3Jji0

— Jesse Morse, M.D. (@DrJesseMorse) November 24, 2025

Why the Struggles?

Mayfield has been playing subpar of recent. This is injury-aside. Over his four prior games, Mayfield had twice failed to exceed 175+ Passing Yards. At one point, Mayfield was considered an MVP candidate, but that has fallen off big-time. He is currently the QB12 in Fantasy Football and no longer a weekly must-start.

Watching the Buccaneers, one thing that I see is a lack of chemistry in this offense. It just does not seem to run as smoothly as it had in the past. This could be due to a multitude of things from coaching to injuries and a simple decline in play. Mayfield looks more like his Panthers version and less like the Buccaneers version that we have come accustomed to.

As a whole, I never think that entire teams are as affected by momentum as some say. However, a Quarterback can become affected by recency bias. Mayfield has played great as recent as Week 11, so we may not need to panic quite yet, but his injury does not help him to be a league-winning asset.

Why to Expect

We first must see how long Mayfield will be out for, if at all. If Mayfield does play in Week 13, he will not be 100% and must be benched in most leagues. He could return to great form by Week 15 (Playoffs), but we need other options on our roster to compete/replace Mayfield when necessary.

Here is the Buccaneers upcoming schedule (Rank vs Quarterback):

• vs Cardinals (11th)
• vs Saints (17th)
• vs Falcons (16th)* Playoffs
• @ Panthers (9th)* Playoffs
• @ Dolphins (25th)* Playoffs
• vs Panthers (9th)

Mayfield has a moderate schedule upcoming. He does favor from three consecutive home games, but only so if he actually plays.

I would expect Mayfield to manage to get back to good form upon his return. The help of Chris Godwin should assist this passing offense quite a bit, also aiding a resurgence of Emeka Egbuka.

Emeka Egbuka was open for a 44-yard TD but Baker underthrew him 😬 pic.twitter.com/Ic0PQ9lEXW

— Yahoo Fantasy Sports (@YahooFantasy) November 24, 2025

Buy, Sell, or Hold: Baker Mayfield

There is nothing that you can do here besides hold Mayfield. Even if not hurt, it would be the right thing to do. Hardly anybody ranked QB10-20 has the upside that Mayfield possesses. As we have said, you must add depth to the Quarterback position. These are some interesting streaming options:

• Sam Darnold (53% Available)
• Jacoby Brissett (53% Available)
• Trevor Lawrence (71% Available)
• Kirk Cousins (96% Available)