Buccaneers QB John Wolford traveled home with team, neck injury tests are promising

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback John Wolford exited the preseason game versus the Jets on Saturday due to a neck injury but was able to travel back home with the team, according to Bucs head coach Todd Bowles. Bowles also shared that the results of Wolford’s tests were positive.

“He’s feeling better. He’s moving around, so that’s the best we can offer right now,” Bowles said, via Greg Auman. “The tests came out pretty (well), so we’ll just see how he recovers.”

Wolford signed a one-year, $1 million contract with the Buccaneers this offseason following the retirement of Tom Brady. He is expected to be the team’s third-string quarterback behind Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask. As far as the quarterback competition goes, there’s still no timeline to name a starter, according to Bowles.

“We don’t have a timetable on it,” Bowles said after the win over the Jets. “We’ll name it when we name it. We feel comfortable with where we’re at, so we’ll go from there.”

The Bucs opted to sit Mayfield in favor of Trask on Saturday before playing Wolford. Trask went 20-for-28 for 218 yards and one touchdown.

“It was all about whether we were going to keep the offensive line in the ballgame,” Bowles said of his decision. “We really wanted to see Kyle in a two-minute situation, so once we got to the two-minute situation and Kyle got that in, we really didn’t want to play Baker in the second half because we were changing the lineup. We wanted John to get some of the work, so we left [Mayfield] out.”

Wolford expected to backup Trask or Mayfield

Wolford is set to enter his fourth NFL season. A former Wake Forest quarterback from 2014-17, he went undrafted in 2018 before later signing with the Jets on their practice squad. However, he was later released and never played a game for the team.

Wolford spent one season playing for the Arizona Hotshots in the AAF. That earned him an opportunity with the Los Angeles Rams in 2020, where he was a backup to Jared Goff and started one game. He remained with the Rams for the next three seasons, winning a Super Bowl in 2021 as the backup to Matthew Stafford.

This past season, Wolford started three games for the Rams to finish with 390 yards passing, one touchdown and three interceptions. He has a career total of 626 yards, one touchdown and five interceptions with a completion percentage of 58.7%.

Prior to his injury, Wolford was a perfect 4-for-4 passing for 57 yards. Trask started the game and again entered when Wolford left to finish as Tampa Bay’s leading passer with 218 yards and a touchdown.

The Buccaneers ultimately went on to defeat the Jets 13-6 and improve their preseason record to 1-1. The lone touchdown for either team came on a connection between Trask and rookie Trey Palmer in which Palmer tipped the pass to himself.

On3’s Chandler Vessels contributed to this report.