Buccaneers' biggest season takeaway an easy one to predict

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers can now have a collective sigh of relief with the bye week upon them after their 23-3 win over the New Orleans Saints.

With Baker Mayfield and the offense having to make do with a laundry list of injuries to key players like Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Bucky Irving, the unit has still managed to put up points and win football games, sitting at 6-2.

Head coach Todd Bowles stated the bye week has come at the right time for his injury-riddled team, and we tend to agree, as the Buccaneers now have two weeks to get healthy.

But for Baker Mayfield, after the first two months of the season, what's his biggest takeaway?

"Six and two," Mayfield said. "Just got to be able to play it one game at a time. We've had a lot of people that have played and contributed to this team. We're going to need everybody down the home stretch. So, taking away the fact that we're leading the division right now, but it's not even close to being over. The real football starts for us right after the bye week, but couldn't have come at a better time to rest up."

More: Baker Mayfield uses 2 incredible words to describe 6-2 Buccaneers

Bye week comes at critical time for Tampa Bay

The Buccaneers, after navigating the first eight weeks of the season, find themselves at their bye week, and no one can say it hasn't come at the perfect time.

With Chris Godwin, Mike Evans, and Bucky Irving, the big three injuries many are wondering about, Godwin and Irving could be in line to return after the bye. Evans isn't due back until at least midway through December.

Irving and Godwin have already played this season but have missed the past couple of weeks, so we aren't sure if both have suffered setbacks or if Todd Bowles' team was being cautious, given the team now has a bye week.

Either way, the Buccaneers can now reset and look to hit the ground running after the bye, and Mayfield might have close to his full array of weapons as well. 

Yeah, the bye week has come at the right time.

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