QB competition heats up in Tampa Bay, who will be Bucs starter Mayfield or Trask?

The bad news for the Bucs is there is no more Tom Brady. The good news, is there seems to be a quarterback competition warming up as both Kyle Trask and Baker Mayfield eye the QB1 spot at Raymond James Stadium this season.

The post Brady era begins

The Bucs may have made the playoffs last year, but only because they were the least common denominator in the NFC South. It was a year full of futility for Todd Bowles’ team, especially the offense. Tampa Bay may have finished as one of the top teams in passing yards, but mostly because they had to go for broke late in games after giving up big leads.

There is no doubt this is a turning point for the franchise as the greatest football players to put on pads has walked away from the game. Fans in Tampa Bay knew that TB12 was only going to stick around for a few years, and now that the time has finally come, the franchise and it’s fan base can start thinking about the future.

There are two candidates for the job, and the competition is getting more heated than many people expected. Baker Mayfield was brought in on a one year deal, as he continues to look for a home after playing for the Carolina Panthers and the LA Rams last season. The other candidate has been backing up Tom Brady for the last couple of years, and while he may have been the underdog coming into camp, that may not be the case anymore.

TB OC sees the playing field even

No one will be monitoring this situation more closely than Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Dave Canales. Canales is in his first year as the TB OC, after serving as an assistant coach in Seattle more than a decade. He told reporters that Mayfield may have had the edge before the two QBs took the field, but things are neck and neck between the two signal callers.

“First couple of days, I think the experience that Baker brings—just playing in games, being in camps, going through installs—you could see where the offense was jelling really well,” Canales told the Tampa Bay Times. “The timing of the snaps and all that is really critical for us, so probably a little bit of an edge to Baker to start off, just in terms of smoothness of the offense. But it just took a couple days for Kyle to really settle in, and then what we saw is, the last two practices Kyle really showed us what he can do … stretching the field with his arm, getting the ball out quickly, making decisions. So I’m really excited about both of those guys and the progression that they’ve made throughout the last couple of days.”

There is a long way to go before Week 1, but we will be closely monitoring this situation. We are likely to see plenty of these two in the Bucs three preseason games, and after that we should get a better indication of who Canales, Bowles and the Bucs are thinking to be their opening week starter against the Vikings in Minnesota.