National Football League

Baker Mayfield vs. Kyle Trask: Bucs taking care to give both QBs a real shot

Published Jul. 27, 2023 2:19 p.m. ET

The battle for a starting quarterback job is serious business — especially when it involves taking over for Tom Brady — but that hasn't stopped the Bucs from having fun with their own competition in training camp.

As Baker Mayfield sat down after practice Thursday morning to start taking questions from reporters, head coach Todd Bowles, having just finished his own session, mockingly yelled out a question from a distance as he walked away: "Hey, Baker, are you the starter?"

"One day at a time right now," Mayfield said with a laugh, politely declining a chance to answer his coach's question as he competes with Kyle Trask for starting honors.

The Bucs aren't naming a starting QB yet, under the premise that the idea of an open competition will bring out the best in both quarterbacks, even if it means splitting reps at a time when everyone is working to learn a new offense under first-time coordinator Dave Canales.

"Competition-wise, we're trying to make the QB room as good as possible," said Mayfield, 28 and on his fourth NFL team in 13 months. "I've always said, a franchise will go as the QB room does, how they jell, how they communicate and get everybody on the same page, how they lead. So right now, I'm going to approach each day the same, no matter what position I'm in."

The two quarterbacks have obvious differences. Mayfield has five years as an NFL starter, Trask has nine career passes from his lone NFL appearance. Trask is four inches taller at 6-foot-5. Mayfield is much more outwardly confident, even brash, while Trask has the humility of a backup at every stage of his football career.

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"As cliche as it sounds, you just want to compete with yourself, and make sure you're progressing every single day," Trask said. "Everyone's going to make different mistakes, so we all can get better at different things. The key to a good competition is everyone trying to better themselves, every single day."

Thursday's morning practice, just the second of training camp, is just the start of that, with players not in pads or even shells as they ramp up through non-contact workouts. And yet the second hour of practice was loaded with situational tests — 11-on-11, red zone and two-minute drills — designed to create a competitive environment, not just for the quarterbacks but the entire roster.

And to that end, Thursday provided a reminder there's much more to the Bucs' success than just their quarterbacks. Trask had a pass in 11-on-11 that was picked off by rookie linebacker SirVocea Dennis, a third-round pick from Pittsburgh.

"Maybe I was forcing it, maybe I was testing him out a little bit, but he made a great play," Trask said. "If you are going to take a chance, it's going to happen now, as opposed to on a Sunday ... that's probably a chance that you take and you learn from."

Mayfield, too, was picked off in red-zone drills, with a low throw into a tight window across the middle that was intercepted by second-year safety Nolan Turner. He followed with a touchdown pass, finding receiver Mike Evans in the back left corner of the end zone.

In a final two-minute live-clock finish, both quarterbacks got to the goal line but couldn't finish the drive, the defense emerging with an early victory each time. Each quarterback was given one more shot with a reset — 0:09 on the clock at the goal line — and Trask missed twice in his chance, while Mayfield converted with a low throw across the middle to rookie receiver Taye Barber.

Bucs general manager Jason Licht said he will be "hyper-focused" on the quarterback competition at the start of camp, and Bowles hasn't shared his timetable for when he'd like to name a Week 1 starter. Mayfield's experience and established leadership is a major advantage, but he'll also have to keep his turnovers in check, having thrown as many interceptions (64) as any NFL quarterback since he entered the league in 2018.

"We don't just grade quarterbacks right now. We grade everybody," Bowles said. "I can't come in here off the field and say 'Kyle did good' or 'Baker did good' or one thing or the other. I look at the whole practice in its entirety, and probably around my fifth or sixth time watching the tape, start evaluating positions and we take notes on who can do what, who-what-there and kind of go from there."

That decision will feature it first real answer when we see which quarterback takes the field first at Raymond James Stadium on Aug. 11 for the Bucs' preseason opener against the Steelers, and that game could reinforce or muddle the initial judgment on who's ahead. Bowles said the decision will be more than just an accounting of practice completions and mistakes, but a thorough reading of which quarterback is best equipped to lead the franchise into the upcoming season.

"It's not just who threw a touchdown and who didn't, who went 10-for-14 and who went 6-for-15," Bowles said. "It's about how you do it. Sometimes you've got to be smart and throw the football away. You've got to know when to have guts and when to not have guts, and that's just a feeling. You see that over time. We understand that, and we're just taking it day by day."

Greg Auman is FOX Sports’ NFC South reporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He is in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having spent time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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