What Baker Mayfield’s Return Means for the 1-5 Bucs’ Chances to Right the Ship

Rich started by talking about his sons. Xander had a great parent-teacher conference and is getting ready to apply to schools. Cooper, who the crew saw last week, is roughly "9 feet tall."

Then came the son he really wanted to talk about. Baker Mayfield is back.

Baker's update

The show played Mayfield's comments on his return from injury, and he sounded like a player who hasn't had much practice sitting out.

"Feel good. Just improving. It's been a process for me," Mayfield said. "I never really missed time because of injury, so not fun. You always want to be out there with your guys."

He described the rehab as a day-by-day grind. "It's been feeling slowly better and better, but that's the frustrating part. It just takes time for an injury like that."

Rich and the crew were delighted. "Feel good," they echoed. "Yeah, baby."

Last chance saloon?

The question on the table was whether this is the last chance saloon for a Buccaneers team sitting at 1-5, heading to Carolina. One voice on the crew said Tampa Bay has to win this game against the Panthers or face major changes, and that things were getting close for Todd Bowles.

Rich pushed back hard on the idea of a midseason change. "Middle of the season, come on," he said. He mapped out the path instead: at Carolina, home for Atlanta. "One and five to three and five, winning two in a row with Baker coming back, let's go."

The counterargument was that Tampa needs to win two of three before the bye, or there could be a new person in Bowles's office. Another voice said Bowles was already on the hot seat and probably should have gone after last season.

Rich wasn't buying it. Making a change at that point, he argued, would mean throwing in the towel right after paying the quarterback, by his count, "200 billion dollars." "Now you're going to throw the towel in?"

He did acknowledge one structural issue. The offensive coordinators keep getting jobs elsewhere, so the offense starts from scratch every year. "That's what happens when you had a defensive head coach," Rich said. "But he's dialing up the plays, man. On defense."

Injuries and the road ahead

There was bad news on one front. Emeka Egbuka has been ruled out. "That is not good," Rich said. He also learned that Bucky Irving and Sean Tucker are playing, information he noted would have been nice to have before benching Rhamondre Stevenson in fantasy the night before.

Rich laid out the full stretch. Win at Carolina, beat Atlanta at home to get to 3-5, then hit Chicago on a Sunday night with a chance to get back within one game of .500 heading into the bye. After that comes a trip to Detroit and a Monday night home game against Carolina.

"That's the way through," Rich said. "It's a long road, but you got Baker back. So I like hearing that."