Dallas Without Mayfield or Winfield

Baker Mayfield is out for Thursday night, and Antoine Winfield Jr. is out with him. That's the short version of Tampa Bay's injury situation heading into the Cowboys game, and it hasn't changed much since I wrote about both of them earlier this week.

Brett Rypien gets the start under center. The receiving corps is intact — Egbuka active, Otton active, Tez Johnson available — but whoever lines up at quarterback is working without the thumb that signed the $165 million check. The Cowboys, meanwhile, reportedly activated All-Pro guard Tyler Smith ahead of the game, so Dallas is getting healthier as Tampa Bay gets thinner.

Defensively, the Buccaneers are playing without their best coverage player in the secondary. Winfield's rib fracture has a two-to-four week timetable, which means he's not close. The linebacker depth behind Anthony Nelson remains essentially nonexistent, and the defensive tackle rotation is running on Rakeem Nunez-Roches at 33 years old with little behind him. That's a lot of thin spots for a road game on a short week.

Tampa Bay is 0–3. This is Week 5.