Bucs QB Wolford carted off due to neck injury

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback John Wolford suffered a neck injury in the second half of Saturday night’s second preseason game against the New York Jets in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and was taken to a local hospital for evaluation, the team announced.

Wolford has movement in his extremities, according to the Bucs.

“He got his movement back in his arm,” head coach Todd Bowles said. “It kind of went numb a little bit. He got his movement back, and it seems to be OK.”

Wolford had just come in to relieve Kyle Trask in the third quarter and was hit from the side on a sack by Jets defensive end Jalyn Holmes, causing him to fall face-first onto the field. He was on the ground for several seconds, with the entire Buccaneers team leaving the sideline to gather around him before athletic trainers loaded him onto a stretcher.

Trask said he almost didn’t bring his helmet out for the second half because the expectation was for Baker Mayfield to play, but an equipment staffer brought it out just in case.

“We’re all hoping the best for him and praying for him,” Trask said of Wolford. “Still haven’t gotten the word back on what had happened, but wishing all the best to him because that’s tough to see. It’s also tough because there’s a whole other half of football to be played. But I thought the guys did a great job coming together, staying focused, knowing that we still had a game to finish, and I thought we did a good job just rallying together.”

Wolford was sidelined with a neck injury last season when he was with the Los Angeles Rams after stepping in for an injured Matthew Stafford.

He was having a particularly strong training camp this summer, at times even outperforming Mayfield and Trask in practices despite being projected as the third quarterback on the depth chart. Some would even argue that Wolford had the top play in Bucs training camp, heaving an 80-yard touchdown pass to undrafted free agent Kade Warner, son of Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner.

Bowles said he expects Trask and Mayfield to play in the Bucs’ third preseason game.

“Probably, yeah,” he said. “Everybody’s gonna play in the third one.”

Wolford had completed 14 of 21 passes for 168 yards and a touchdown this preseason with no interceptions before the injury Saturday.

The other quarterbacks have credited him for helping them assimilate into offensive coordinator Dave Canales’ new offense, with Canales calling him the “smartest guy in the room on day one.”