Baker Mayfield's MRI results provide some surprisingly good news for Buccaneers

Injury was quite literally added to insult on Sunday night for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the middle of a 34-7 blowout loss to the Rams, Baker Mayfield needed to leave the game with a shoulder injury.

Less than 24 hours later, we now know how serious the injury is and how much time Baker will miss.

After the loss, head coach Todd Bowles said Mayfield had sprained his shoulder but would undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the injury. That happened on Monday and revealed that things aren't as bad as they seemed in the moment.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Baker has a sprained AC joint and that it's mild enough that he could play next Sunday against the Cardinals. Later in the day, MRI results revealed that the sprain was low grade and confirmed that Mayfield returning to action sooner than it seemed is very much on the table.

Whether that's a good idea or not is an entirely different debate, but right now Bucs fans can breathe a sigh of relief that things weren't as bad as they could have been.

Had this been a Grade 3 sprain, for instance, Baker's timeline to return would have been in the 6-to-8 week range which would have knocked him out for the rest of the season. It's also worth noting that it's his non-throwing shoulder that was injured, which increases the likelihood of him being able to potentially play through it.

That's a very bad idea, though, because it didn't take long for Baker's arm injury to become more serious than it maybe needed to be.

Mayfield actually needed to leave twice, and while we will mitigate whether he should have even returned, the fact of the matter is that he did and paid the price. After throwing the Bucs' only touchdown of the night, Baker left the field clutching his left shoulder and went straight into the blue medical tent.

Things didn't look good, but Baker ultimately returned for the team's next drive but went down again after launching an ill-advised Hail Mary attempt at the end of the first half. That was the play that did him in, as Baker emerged from the locker room after halftime without his uniform and wearing a sling.

One reason to consider resting Baker is the fact that the schedule loosens up significantly over the next few weeks. Tampa Bay gets the Cardinals next Sunday in a game that Teddy Bridgewater can easily manage. Carolina is the only team with a winning record left on the Bucs' schedule the remainder of the season, which is another reason Baker resting to get as healthy as he can for the playoffs is essential.

We'll see what happens, but the good news right now is that Baker's injury isn't nearly as bad as it seemed which is a lucky break nobody in Tampa Bay thought we were going to get.