Hey Bucs, This Is Not Trask Time

This day was eventually going to happen. There was going to come a time when Tom Brady was no longer going to be the quarterback for the Bucs.

That time has come and that day is today – February 1, 2023.

But this not the day when the Bucs become Kyle Trask’s team.

This is not Trask Time in Tampa Bay. It cannot be – unless general manager Jason Licht and head coach Todd Bowles want to ride the express elevator down to the unemployment floor at the AdventHealth Training Center.

Trask is the only quarterback currently under contract, but there will be two more future options in red and pewter this year. One will likely be a veteran to come in and start this season, and the other could be another young arm to challenge Trask – perhaps in the form of a rookie QB from this year’s draft.

I have nothing against Trask, the Bucs’ second-round pick in 2021. The former Florida standout was in Pewter Report’s 2021 Bucs mock draft in the second round, so we nailed his selection. By all accounts Trask seems like a nice guy and a very hard worker. Bowles even said as much on January 4 before Trask saw his first NFL regular season action against Atlanta in Week 18.

“Since he’s been here, every time I look out my window, he’s out there working on his own,” Bowles said. “He has the greatest resolve and toughness and inner strength almost than any person I’ve seen. A young guy coming out – he prepares every day. When his time comes, he’s going to be ready because I see him working at it every day. He has inner toughness, he has inner strength, and he has the drive and the will to win. If you put that together, given the opportunity, I think he’s going to take advantage of it.”

Yet against the Falcons, Trask completed just 3-of-9 passes for 23 yards in garbage time of Tampa Bay’s 30-17 loss in Atlanta. Combine that and his production from two preseasons with the Bucs where he completed 72-of-129 passes (59%) for 769 yards with two touchdowns, four interceptions and was sacked 12 times, and there isn’t a lot of hope that he can ascend to a starting role anytime soon.

In fact, Trask couldn’t even beat out veteran Blaine Gabbert for the backup job this summer when given extra reps when Brady left camp for 10 days due to his failing marriage. The Bucs would be making a huge mistake if they automatically assume that Trask is their quarterback of the future – and that the future is now.

Trask has to earn it first.

He can’t even be given the backup job. Trask has to earn the right to be the No. 2 before he can even be considered the No. 1.

There are a couple of complications the Bucs have to consider, too.

Almost every rep Trask has taken in practice or in his limited snaps in games – both preseason and the regular season – have come with backup players. With the Bucs’ Super Bowl window open during Brady’s three years in Tampa Bay it’s been hard to find starting reps for Trask in a practice – let alone in a game situation.

The Bucs could have started Trask in a preseason game this year. But even in Nashville when the team lost to the Titans in the second exhibition game, which Brady missed, a lot of the starters didn’t even suit up. So the team has done a disservice to itself to when trying to decide if Trask is/can be its quarterback of the future. Again, hard to fault the team with Brady around, but there are far more questions about Trask’s potential than there are answers.

Trask Has Proven To Be A Slow Learner

One of those big questions is also the other big complication. Trask just spent two years learning Bruce Arians’ offense and now he’ll have to start over at ground zero learning a new system with new verbiage from a yet-to-be hired new offensive coordinator. Trask has been known to be a slow learner, and that’s not going to help him when it comes to digesting a new playbook, and then potentially trying to win the starting job in 2023.

“Here’s how I would describe him: a really deliberate learner,” said Christensen via Buccaneers.com. “He takes it nice and slow, he tries to get the details of the thing, and then once he gets it, he gets it. He’s not one of those guys who looks at it once and he’s got it. He’s going to mull over it, he’s going to call most nights with some questions – ‘Hey, what do you think on this, what do you think on that?’ He watches a ton of film.

“That rookie mini-camp, a couple times I left here and by the time I left the building the light was still on in the quarterback room. He was in there kind of just going over his notes. So it means a ton to him and I think he’ll be a guy who will get it slow and steady but then get it the right way and have it in order. I think he’ll be really deliberate in how he processes all this information.”

Trask had the same reputation at the University of Florida where he did not beat out Feleipe Franks for the starting job until his junior season.

Could Bucs’ Young OC Candidates Be Geared Towards Developing Trask?

But with Trask entering his third year in Tampa Bay and with two more seasons under contract, the Bucs are not ready to give up on him – nor should they. Perhaps this is one of the reasons the Bucs have spent so much time interviewing young quarterbacks coaches and passing game coordinators this offseason while searching for Byron Leftwich’s replacement.

The team might be asking the likes of Klint Kubiak, Jim Bob Cooter, Dan Pitcher, Shea Tierney and Ronald Curry about what their assessment was of Trask coming out of college during their pre-draft evaluations in 2021. And Bowles and Licht might be asking them how simple their offenses would be to learn for a young, unproven quarterback who is “deliberate” when it comes to comprehending a playbook and a system.

That’s all well and good, and might lead to Trask becoming more productive in the future than he has been in his first two seasons in Tampa Bay. Or that intel – if it is cumulatively negative from those young QB coaches – could lead the Bucs to draft another quarterback this year and begin to turn the page on Trask.

Either way, the Bucs can’t just automatically conclude that Trask is anything more than a third-string quarterback at this point in time. He hasn’t earned the right to be anything more. When NFL teams try to force young players into roles they aren’t ready for the results usually aren’t good for anyone – the quarterback, the team, the general manager and the head coach.

It might be Trask time in Tampa Bay eventually, but there is no way the Bucs can bank on that happening in 2023.