After suffering a scary neck injury in the second half, quarterback John Wolford left the game on a stretcher and was transported to a local hospital. This morning, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles provided an update on Wolford.
“He’s feeling better,” Bowles said. “He’s moving around, so that’s the best we can offer right now. The tests came out pretty [well], so we’ll just see how he recovers.”
Bowles also confirmed that Wolford did travel back on the team plane to Tampa Bay, which is encouraging news that the injury wasn’t too severe.
After completing all four of his passes for 57 yards on the first drive, Wolford came back out onto the field to lead the Bucs’ offense. With a minute left in the third quarter, Jets defensive end Jalyn Holmes brought down Wolford, who took a hard hit on the play as his head slammed onto the turf.
Wolford was down for a few minutes on the field before trainers helped him onto a cart and he gave a brief thumbs-up before being taken off the field. Bowles confirmed it was a neck injury.
“Right now, it’s a neck injury, Bowles added. “We’re still evaluating him but it’s a neck injury right now.”
Injury Complicates Bucs QB Picture For Preseason Finale
With the severity of the injury John Wolford suffered, it complicates an already complex competition. With Wolford having already dealt with an eerily similar neck injury in the past on the Rams, the Bucs are not likely to force the issue and play him in the last preseason game against the Ravens.
What does that mean in terms of the quarterback picture? Head coach Todd Bowles did little to clarify the controversy when discussing why he reinserted quarterback Kyle Trask in the game. Trask himself did not expect to come back into the game.
In deciding not to play Baker Mayfield, Bowles did not want to throw him out there, but also continued to not commit to a starter. It was telling that in what has been considered an open competition one of the competitors did not play at all.
It will be interesting to see who the team brings in as an extra arm and how the quarterback rotation shakes out in the preseason finale against the Ravens.
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