TAMPA, Fla. — Only one more preseason game to go before head coach Todd Bowles is expected to announce who the starting quarterback will be for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this year.
As many already know, the competition is between Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask, both of which have started one preseason game each.
During his limited time on the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Preseason Week 1, Mayfield completed eight of his nine passes, recording 63 passing yards and a touchdown pass to rookie Trey Palmer.
Trask, meanwhile, has played more minutes than Mayfield so far in preseason.
Against the Steelers, he completed six of 10 passes for 99 yards, and against the Jets – a game in which he started and played the majority of it – Trask completed 20 out of 29 passes, recording 218 passing yards and one touchdown pass also to Palmer. Trask also logged seven rushing yards on four carries.
Looking at the surface, it may be telling that Mayfield will be the starter given that he has played one less game and fewer minutes in preseason, which is something NFL teams do to their starting players around this time.
However, according to Bowles, letting Trask play for most of Saturday night's preseason game was to see how he performs in certain situations.
“It was all about whether we were going to keep the offensive line in the ballgame," Bowles said. "We really wanted to see Kyle [Trask] 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 [Mayfield] in the second half because we were changing the lineup. We wanted John [Wolford] to get some of the work so we left [Mayfield] out.”
Trask is not going to question his coach's decision to keep him out on the field because, at the end of the day, it's another opportunity to prove he should be the guy in the pocket come Sept. 10 in Minnesota.
The former Florida quarterback did what he had to do and impressed Bowles.
"[He was] poise in the pocket. A lot more athleticism – he used his legs when he had to and he was very successful at that," Bowles said. "He threw the ball where he was supposed to throw it – he threw some pinpoint passes. He’d like to have a few plays back but overall, I saw a lot of poise and a lot of growth. I thought he did well.”
Still, it's hard to believe Mayfield does not have the edge over Trask for the starting job.
He looked sharper in the pocket against the Steelers and although he has thrown more interceptions than Trask in training camp, his deep passes have led to other wide receivers making highlight-tier plays.
Trask has taken a more conservative approach with his plays in training camp. His fewer interceptions come down to taking the "safer option" with check downs and not taking as many risks of throwing the ball downfield compared to Mayfield.
It's not a bad approach to compete with Mayfield for the job, but to win football games, shots down the field must be taken to help put points on the board.
Trask seemed to start doing that toward the latter days of training camp, but it also led to him causing more interceptions. Those attempts, however, paid off when he completed a 33-yard touchdown pass to Palmer against the Jets.
For Mayfield, it helps his case to be the starter because not only was he the 2018 No. 1 overall draft pick, but he also has NFL starting experience during his stints in Cleveland, Carolina and Los Angeles. Mayfield also recorded a playoff win with the Browns in 2020.
Plus, the fact that he did not enter the game against the Jets – disregarding what Bowles said – is a strong indication that he may have won the starting quarterback competition.
However, Bowles is still not committed to naming a starter.
“We don’t have a timetable on it. We’ll name it when we name it. We feel comfortable with where we’re at, so we’ll go from there," he said. "[I want to see them] just continuing to master the offense – that’s really all it is – mastering the offense. It’s new for everybody. Everybody is getting a good feel for what they can do right now – running the offense and driving the car.”
Bowles was also noncommittal on who will start the final preseason game on Saturday, Aug. 26 against the Baltimore Ravens.
Whoever ends up being selected as the team's new starting quarterback for the 2023 NFL Season will only have two weeks to get reps with the first-team offense.
Bowles thinks that's plenty of time to get the ship sailing.
“[Mayfield and Trask] had [reps with the first team offesne] all camp, they’ve had it all spring. We don’t worry about the continuity part – everybody has gotten plenty of reps together," he said. "Two weeks will be fine for us. We just need some game time, so everybody is going to play.”