CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The last-place Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in need of a spark.
Baker Mayfield would seem to be just the right guy to provide it when he makes his anticipated return to the field Sunday against division rival Carolina.
Mayfield missed the past three games with a dislocated right thumb, but returned to practice this week wearing a protective white glove designed to add support to the area. He said Thursday the thumb has “gotten to a place where it’s strong enough to be able to play.”
“It feels fine gripping it and throwing it,” Mayfield said. “It's just the impact stuff. That was my concern. But it's been great so far.”
Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles said a day earlier that Mayfield was trending in the right direction and that he was encouraged to see his quarterback “do the things we wanted him to do."
Panthers coach Dave Canales is familiar with Mayfield's toughness, and certainly knows how important he is to the Buccaneers (1-5).
Canales served as Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator and play-caller in 2023 and is credited with helping revive Mayfield’s career. Mayfield threw for 4,044 yards that season with 28 touchdown passes as the Bucs won the NFC South.
“This is a guy that’s going to try to fight through things, going to try to get back out there and help his team," Canales said. "He’s a great teammate. He’s tough, so I expect to see him out there.”
That's normally not a good thing for Carolina.
Mayfield has dominated the Panthers in the past. He's 6-1 against his former team as a starter, with five of those wins coming since signing with the Buccaneers.
The Buccaneers won four straight NFC South titles from 2021-24, but have struggled since in losing 12 of their past 15 games.
Carolina (3-2), which dethroned Tampa Bay as division champions last season despite a losing record, seems to be trending in the opposition direction behind a steadily improving Bryce Young at quarterback. He leads the NFL in yards passing per game.
Young, the No. 1 overall pick in 2023, is now in his fourth season with Carolina and his third in the same offensive system.
Sunday will mark his 50th start, and Young seems to be getting more confident with each passing week. After starting with a 4-21 record as a starter, Young is 13-11 since.
“There is a level of comfort that I feel from him,” Canales said. “It's kind of twofold really: It's the growth in our system and this system becoming Bryce's. And then it is time on task. It's just racking up these starts.”
Tampa Bay (1-5) at Carolina (3-2).
When/where to watch: Sunday, 1 p.m., EDT, FOX.
Latest odds: Panthers by 3 1/2.
Against the spread: Buccaneers 1-5, Panthers 3-2.
Last week: Buccaneers lost to Steelers 26-19; Panthers beat Eagles 25-14.
Last meeting: Buccaneers beat Panthers 16-13 on Jan. 3 in Tampa, Fla.
Series record: Panthers lead 26-25.
Panthers QB Bryce Young vs. Buccaneers defense. Young is just 1-5 as a starter against the Bucs, but he looks like a completely different passer in his fourth season. He's fifth in touchdown passes per game (2.2) and his 15 pass completions of 25 yards or longer are third most in the league. He'll face a Tampa Bay defense that is No. 4 in the league in yards allowed but 20th against the pass.
The Bucs held Pittsburgh's Aaron Rodgers in check last week for most of the game, but allowed three long third down conversions in the fourth quarter and overtime and allowed the game to slip away.
— The Buccaneers have won five of the past six meetings and eight of the past 10.
— Tampa Bay RB Bucky Irving is tough to bring down. He ranks fourth in the league in highest percentage of missed tackles forced at 29.1% since coming into the league in 2024, which ranks behind only Kansas City's Kenneth Walker (34.9%), Atlanta's Bijan Robinson (30.8%) and Detroit Jahmyr Gibbs (29.3%).
— Bucs DT A’Shawn Robinson is in his first season with Tampa Bay after spending the past two with Carolina. Robinson played in 32 games for the Panthers in that span and contributed 145 tackles and eight sacks.
— Tampa Bay's defense has finished in the top five in the league in rushing in six of the past seven seasons and it hasn't dropped off. Behind nose tackle Vita Vea, the Bucs rank second in the league in run defense in allowing just 75.5 yards per game.
— Bucs WR Emeka Egbuka (concussion) and Chris Godwin Jr. (rest) did not practice on Thursday
— Carolina's 146 points and 17 touchdowns are the most in franchise history through five games. The Panthers have also have their second-most passing yards (1,478) and total yards (2,022) through five games since coming into the league in 1995.
— Five different players — wide receivers Jalen Coker and Tetairoa McMillan, running back Chuba Hubbard, and tight ends Tommy Tremble and TE Darren Waller — all have two-touchdown games this season.
— Young will look to become the first Carolina player in team history to throw for at least 250 yards and one touchdown pass in nine straight games (including the postseason).
— Panthers OLB Jaelan Phillips (hamstring) has been ruled out for Carolina.
— At halftime the Panthers will honor former linebacker Luke Kuechly, who was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2026 in August. He will receive his ring from the Hall of Fame.
AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi in Tampa, Fla., contributed to this report.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Carolina Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard is brought down by Philadelphia Eagles safety Andrew Mukuba, left, during the second half of an NFL football game in Philadelphia, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young gestures as he leaves the field after an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that Vivek Ramaswamy, the GOP nominee for Ohio governor, should keep running a controversial ad featuring the estranged mother of Democratic opponent Amy Acton, as debate over the ad divided Republicans and threatened to spill into other races and states.
Trump called Acton “fair game” and denounced Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who criticized the ad as “deeply, deeply troubling.” Acton previously served in DeWine’s Cabinet as state director of health. Her mother lost custody of Acton and her brother after her husband — the children’s stepfather — was indicted for raping Acton when she was 12.
“All I know is Amy Acton’s mother said horrible things about Amy Acton, calling her a liar and other things and unreliable. A lot of very bad things,” Trump told reporters before leaving Washington to campaign for Republican candidates in Iowa. “And I say that she’s fair game.”
At a gathering with reporters at the Ohio Statehouse, DeWine recalled the painful experiences of rape victims he dealt with as a county prosecutor and state attorney general.
“It’s wrong to run this ad,” he said. “And, even at this late time — my wife, Fran, saw the ad just run this morning on TV — I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down.”
The term-limited DeWine’s remarks place him at odds with Ramaswamy, whom he has endorsed. The biotech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate has said he planned to spend $4 million to broadcast the ad online and on television.
The question of whether it should be on the air reached into other contests, far from Ohio. Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson, the GOP nominee for Senate in Iowa, told a reporter before Trump’s visit to the state that the ad is “absolutely terrible.”
“I think they should take the ad down,” Hinson told ABC News.
GOP U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, in a tight race in Ohio, has said he would not have run the ad.
The governor stopped short of pulling his backing of the Republican for now. DeWine recalled a previous line of attack by the Acton campaign had mentioned Ramaswamy's mother and said that also was wrong — “family members have always historically been off limits” — though he noted it was never used in a multimillion-dollar ad campaign.
That critique from the summer cited an investigative report into Geetha Ramaswamy's role at a pharmaceutical company run by her son, whom Acton and Democrats described as “hiring his own mother to manipulate clinical trial data.” The Ramaswamy campaign called those claims “slanderous.”
It also said Ramaswamy is being held to a different standard than Acton and other Democrats who have attacked Republicans’ families, and will not be pulling the ad.
“Governor DeWine is correct that the first and only candidate to attack the mother of her opponent in this race was Amy Acton,” spokesperson Connie Luck said in a statement, adding, "We refuse to accept the media's double standards.”
Trump questioned DeWine’s loyalty to the Republican candidate.
“He strongly suggested that Vivek should, ‘take down the Ad,’” Trump wrote on social media earlier Thursday. “He probably wants a Dumocrat to win, and certainly doesn’t want someone who will do a much better job than he is capable of doing.”
By chiming in, DeWine has entered the fray among Ohio Republicans over the advertisement — as both the governor's race and a race for U.S. Senate appear far tighter than expected in a state Trump won handily three times. The video features Acton’s birth mother, Donna Arthur, calling her “a liar” and insinuating she has mental health issues.
Acton, Ohio’s COVID-19-era health director, has made no secret of facing homelessness and abuse as a child. Arthur lost custody of her children after their stepfather, Arthur's husband, was indicted on a charge of rape involving Acton. Acton's campaign on Tuesday posted a video of her brother, who supported her backstory about living in a tent and being abused.
Republican Vice President JD Vance, an Ohio native son, expressed disgust during an Ohio campaign swing Wednesday with Republicans “whining” about the ad as low and in poor taste. Husted, who was DeWine's lieutenant governor and is defending his seat from a comeback by Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown, has since said he would not have run the ad, as has Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is running for state auditor.
Another influential Ohio Republican, former U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, posted a lengthy essay on X overnight suggesting that “the floor may have just fallen out from under the Republican campaign for Ohio Governor” and urging every Republican to distance themselves from it.
Amid the turmoil, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou posted what sounded like a warning, or a threat.
“The final days of a tough campaign are always the best time to find out who is really with you and who just posts and pretends,” he wrote. “Yes — we are keeping score.” The quote was followed by a winking-eye emoji.
The ad is also dividing Republicans nationally, while Democrats have rallied around Acton.
Nikki Haley, who sparred with Ramaswamy during the 2024 Republican presidential primary over the personal nature of his attacks, called him “a bad guy” in a social media post Tuesday. “It’s a shame he continues to get away with it,” she wrote.
At the same time, Media Matters for America, a left-leaning media watchdog group, has reported that many within the national conservative media are promoting and praising the ad. Ramaswamy's campaign manager, Jonathan Ewing, characterized it as “a campaign-ending moment for Amy Acton.”
Wayne Allyn Root of Gateway Pundit called it “absolutely hilarious” and Daily Wire host Michael Knowles described it as “brilliant.”
In West Michigan, former GOP Rep. Fred Upton said the ad had spread throughout his community as people heard about it on the radio and television or were asked about it by others.
“They asked me about it at the bank today,” Upton said. “And for Vance to sign up with that, which he did yesterday, people are like, ‘How fast can I vote?’”
Upton added that the ad “speaks horribly of the gutter politics that some rely on.”
Democratic Governors Association spokesperson Izzi Levy said: “Child abuse and sexual assault should never be weaponized to score partisan points. Governor DeWine is right — Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad is beyond troubling, and he should take it down immediately and apologize to survivors everywhere and all those hurt by this reprehensible attack.”
Illinois first lady MK Pritzker said she donated $500,000 to Acton’s campaign because of the ad.
Police and court records show Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with the rape of Acton in July 1978, when she was 12, after her biological father lodged a formal complaint against him. The abuse allegedly happened from December 1976 to April 1978. Cledith Arthur failed to show for a court appearance and became a fugitive.
Donna Arthur remained married to him until his death in 2004.
Associated Press reporter Joey Cappelletti contributed from Washington.
A boy covers his face with an American flag as President Donald Trump walks past before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A boy covers his face with an American flag as President Donald Trump walks past before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before walking to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - Gov. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, speaks at an event at the National Governors Association Winter Meeting, Feb. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert, File)
President Donald Trump listens as gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at a campaign rally at the Covelli Centre, in Youngstown, Ohio, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
