Who Should I Start? Baker Mayfield or Justin Fields

Tuesday, December 30, 4:25 PM

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield (knee, shoulder) is on the team's Week 18 injury report with multiple injuries and was listed as limited in the first practice of the week on Tuesday, according to Brianna Dix of Buccaneers.com. Mayfield injured his left (non-throwing) shoulder earlier this season, but now he's dealing with an injury to his throwing arm heading into a must-win Week 18 divisional game this Saturday against the Carolina Panthers. The 30-year-old veteran will almost certainly play this weekend, but he certainly hasn't looked 100% in a long while. Mayfield's fortunes haven't turned around recently as the Bucs have gotten healthy on offense, and he's averaging just 222.5 passing yards with six touchdowns and six turnovers in the last four games. At best, Mayfield will be a low-end QB1 option as he plays for the NFC South title this weekend against Carolina.

Tuesday, December 23, 11:45 PM

New York Jets head coach Aaron Glenn announced on Tuesday that quarterback Justin Fields (knee) will be placed on Injured Reserve, ending his 2025 season. Fields will be shut down for the final two games of the season after already missing each of the last three contests due to a knee injury. Before the 26-year-old injured his knee, he had been benched in favor of veteran Tyrod Taylor. It was an extremely disappointing 2025 campaign for Fields, who was brought in as a free agent last offseason to be the Jets' starter this year. Fields ended up making only nine starts, completing 62.7% of his 204 pass attempts for 1,259 yards, seven touchdowns, and one interception. He ran for 383 yards and four touchdowns on 71 attempts while also losing three fumbles. If he remains with the Jets in 2026, Fields will have to show lots of improvement to be in contention to win the starting gig back.