TAMPA, Fla. – Right now, the Bucs don’t have a starting QB. Neither Baker Mayfield nor Kyle Trask look at it like replacing Tom Brady at quarterback.
Mayfield and Trask agree on one thing. Just work hard to be the best in training camp and take each practice one day at a time.
“Competition wise we are just trying to make the QB room as good as possible,” Mayfield said. “Right now I’m going to approach each day the same, no matter what position I’m in.”
You would think with Mayfield’s experience, he would be the choice over Trask. Mayfield was the overall number 1 pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and led the Cleveland Browns to a playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2020 throwing three touchdowns in that game. Trask is just 3-of-9 passing for 23 yards in three seasons with the Bucs.
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“As cliche as it sounds, we’re not really competing against each other,” Trask said. “You just want to compete with yourself and make sure you’re progressing every single day. The key to a good competition is everyone is just trying to get better themselves every single day. That’s been my main focus.”
Bucs head coach Todd Bowles says he has an idea when he’ll announce the starter at quarterback and says it definitely will be sometime this preseason, but he’s not going to rush it, especially now when the Bucs aren’t even practicing in pads yet. Bowles says Mayfield and Trask have two totally different personalities, but in the end, whoever plays better will get the job.
“The quarterback, naturally, because he’s the signal caller and talks a lot and tells everybody what to do, has to have some type of leadership skills,” Bowles said. Kyle (Trask) has that, as well as Baker (Mayfield). Kyle is very vocal when he needs to be. He comes across as quiet, but he’s very loud on the field. He’s very confident in what he’s doing and we like the way he leads it, and we like the way Baker leads.”
Mayfield comes across confident, even though he’s bounced around a bit and feels like he’s getting a good grasp of this offense.
“We are just getting into the swing of things offensively, with just the recall of what we worked on in the spring,” Mayfield said. “You expect a lot of rust the first few days when you are talking about that, but for the most part it has been pretty clean.”
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Since Trask has been watching and learning under Tom Brady for the past 2 seasons, I asked Trask what was the biggest thing he took away from the Brady experience.
“I really saw how efficient he (Brady) was as a passer,” Trask said. He was really big on staying back in his stance, and maybe that led to my improvements this offseason of just staying smooth and seeing how efficient he was and maybe trying to incorporate that into my game.“
Mayfield and Trask are sharing first-team reps in practice. Bowles hasn’t even said which one will start in the first preseason game on Aug. 11 vs the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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