{"id":1235,"section":"sports","section_label":"Sports","url":"https://www.brokenews.co/sports/1235","headline":"Baker Mayfield returns from thumb injury, leads Bucs to early TD","dek":"Mayfield, back after missing three games, wore a specially padded glove made by the Tampa Bay Rays to protect his throwing thumb and drove Tampa Bay to a 7-0 lead over Carolina on his first series.","body":"Baker Mayfield is back under center for the Buccaneers, and he did not waste any time. The quarterback, who missed three games with a thumb injury to his throwing hand, returned for Tampa Bay's Week 7 matchup against the Carolina Panthers and promptly led the offense on a touchdown drive, putting the Bucs up 7-0.\n\nMayfield was cleared to play even though the thumb is not fully healed. To manage the injury, the Tampa Bay Rays stepped in with an assist outside their own sport. The World Series team helped put together a protective glove for the 31-year-old's right hand, built with extra padding around the thumb for added support, according to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network.\n\nThe glove appears to have done its job through one series. Mayfield looked comfortable enough on his first drive back to march the offense down the field for a score, giving Tampa Bay an early edge over Carolina.","published_at":"2026-10-25T22:19:00.200423+00:00","source_count":3,"written_from":[{"outlet":"Yahoo Sports","publisher":"Yahoo Sports","title":"How Rays are helping Buccaneers’ Baker Mayfield make thumb injury return vs. Panthers","url":"https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/rays-helping-buccaneers-baker-mayfield-171456241.html"},{"outlet":"Pro Football Talk","publisher":"NBC Sports","title":"Baker Mayfield's first drive back results in a TD, 7-0 lead","url":"https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/baker-mayfields-first-drive-back-results-in-a-td-7-0-lead"},{"outlet":"CBS Sports","publisher":"CBS Sports","title":"Buccaneers' Baker Mayfield gets unexpected help from World Series team to make return after injury","url":"https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/tampa-bay-rays-help-buccaneers-baker-mayfield-glove/"}],"more_coverage":[{"outlet":"Yahoo Sports","publisher":"Yahoo Sports","title":"Baker Mayfield returns to a major challenge for Buccaneers","url":"https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/baker-mayfield-returns-major-challenge-154548423.html"},{"outlet":"Yahoo Sports","publisher":"Yahoo Sports","title":"Fantasy football Week 7: Should you start Baker Mayfield?","url":"https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/fantasy-football-week-7-start-204552280.html"},{"outlet":"Yahoo Sports","publisher":"Yahoo Sports","title":"Discussion: Is Baker Mayfield’s return good or bad news for the Panthers?","url":"https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/discussion-baker-mayfield-return-good-110000578.html"},{"outlet":"Yahoo Sports","publisher":"Yahoo Sports","title":"Buccaneers vs. Panthers Week 7 inactives: Baker Mayfield returns","url":"https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/buccaneers-vs-panthers-week-7-160537772.html"},{"outlet":"Yahoo Sports","publisher":"Yahoo Sports","title":"Baker Mayfield's first drive back results in a TD, 7-0 lead","url":"https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/baker-mayfields-first-drive-back-172003901.html"},{"outlet":"Yahoo Sports","publisher":"Yahoo Sports","title":"Baker Mayfield not asked to do much in Week 7","url":"https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/baker-mayfield-not-asked-much-201248950.html"},{"outlet":"Yahoo Sports","publisher":"Yahoo Sports","title":"Baker Mayfield throws for just 64 yards in Buccaneers' blowout win","url":"https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/baker-mayfield-throws-just-64-214526861.html"}],"image":{"url":"https://nbcsports.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3ba254a/2147483647/strip/false/crop/1920x1080+0+0/resize/1920x1080!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhdliveextra-a.akamaihd.net%2FHD%2Fimage_sports%2FNBCU_Sports_Group_-_nbcsports%2F517%2F462%2Fnbc_pftpm_25yearspft_261024.jpg","credit":"Pro Football Talk","width":1920},"embed":null,"license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","attribution":"Analysis data is licensed CC BY 4.0. Credit brokenews and link to the story page you took it from. Source headlines, story titles taken from a source headline, and quoted passages remain the property of their publishers and are quoted for comparison, not licensed onward.","terms":"https://www.brokenews.co/about#reuse"}