Todd Bowles: Kyle Trask Isn’t The Bucs’ Starting Quarterback — Yet
February 28th, 2023
Todd Bowles taps brakes on Kyle Trask starting — for now.
Very interesting reaction from Bucs coach Todd Bowles concerning third-year quarterback Kyle Trask.
Word percolating through NFL circles is that in the wake of Tom Brady retiring, the Bucs will make a run this fall with Trask as the starting quarterback.
Hold up! said Bowles during a sidebar session before he spoke to the #NFLMedia at large at the combine today at the Indiana Convention Center. He hasn’t named Trask the Bucs starter.
Joe’s good friend Rock Riley asked Bowles about Trask and referred to the Florida product as the Bucs’ “No. 1” quarterback. Bowles responded in a roundabout way, whoa Nellie!
“I didn’t say he could be No. 1 yet,” Bowles said. “I just said he can campete. I said he can compete. I see the work ethic. I see the toughness. I see the willingness to get better every day.
“It’s hard to get reps when you have a guy like Tom Brady in front of you all the time. He will have the opportunity to compete to become No. 1, if he can become No. 1 which is all you can ask for in this league. You don’t give anybody anything.
“We will bring in competition. At the same time, I like his work ethic. I like his determination. He’s one of those guys when the camera is off, he’s working. And that is what you can appreciate about him. And that’s the best I can tell you.”
Well, everything Joe can tell reading between the lines of Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht and Bowles speaking for a combined hour, the job sure sounds like it is Trask’s to lose. He will get every chance to lock it up.
Bowles, a bit more so than Licht, emphasized competition for Trask is coming. Who and when, well, they didn’t say. Licht didn’t even rule out drafting a quarterback.
The way Joe looks at it, unless Trask falls flat, he’s your Bucs quarterback come September.
February 28th, 2023 at 2:35 pm
It’s nice to mention Trask and his work ethic, but one glaring omission I’ve noticed from all the coach-speak is the talent of Trask. Arm strength? Accuracy? Good foot-work?
Bucs have seen him in practice for 2 full years – don’t they know whether he has talent or not? If he does have talent, why aren’t the coaches talking him up? Is the talent of Trask another Ryan Jensen “mystery?”
We have questions.
February 28th, 2023 at 2:44 pm
Competing is good. Give Trask some decent competition..
February 28th, 2023 at 2:47 pm
Bowles has yet to say what kind of competition Trask will have. Is he going to go for a brand named retread, or a journeyman and a draft pick.
Bowles has, so far, been blind to Trask’s development, does he speak truth about the competition?
February 28th, 2023 at 2:47 pm
Coach Bozo is pathetic. This is the year to get rid of all the debt. Bozo is the perfect coach to do it. A total loser.
February 28th, 2023 at 2:55 pm
Amen, D-Rok. Those are very good question. Trawl’s velocity is an issue. Brady at his advanced age had better velocity on his passes. Lack of velocity has nothing to do with Trask not playing with the first team.
February 28th, 2023 at 2:55 pm
D-Rok:
Arm talent for Trask – very good, by every observer
Accuracy? In his senior year he connected on 68.9% of his passes, led the nation in passing yards, passing TDs, and TD/INT ratio. His passer rating was 180. Trask was especially good on touch passes, which of course requires extreme accuracy, as opposed to just lobbing the ball up there and hoping your receiver will get to it first.
Footwork – very good in the pocket and moving around, he had one of the lowest sack rates per pass attempt of any starting quarterback his senior year, despite having only a so so offensive line at Florida.
The Bucs know he has talent – quit putting words in their mouths that Bowles simply did not say.
February 28th, 2023 at 2:59 pm
LMAO.Just a polite way of Bowles sayin, You kidding me? We bringin in a vet who will probably start.
February 28th, 2023 at 3:01 pm
I can’t believe how many people (FSU Stans) are about to jump on here and start celebrating.
February 28th, 2023 at 3:01 pm
I sure hope Bowles will not make us spend money we do not have to bring in a veteran QB
February 28th, 2023 at 3:05 pm
Duane,
I aint talkin’ ’bout college, I’m talkin’ ’bout the Pros, bro.
As a pro, does he have talent or not? That question has NOT been addressed by the Bucs that I’ve seen to date.
I guess time will tell.
February 28th, 2023 at 3:09 pm
Kyle Trask is currently the #1 by default. Whoever they bring in will have a chance to beat him out. Projecting him as the opening day starter is for sports prognosticators and members of the NFL offseason speculation industrial complex… which gets about 90% of everything wrong. Because it’s wankery.
We don’t know who will start at QB for the Bucs in 2023. Might be Trask.
February 28th, 2023 at 3:27 pm
Guessing they bring in someone like Mariota or Heineke….maybe Mayfield. Trask will still need a vet in the QB room. Maybe they draft another young guy as well.
February 28th, 2023 at 3:29 pm
D-Rok Says: “As a pro, does he have talent or not? That question has NOT been addressed by the Bucs that I’ve seen to date.”
Bruce Arians Says: “We’re in good hands with Kyle Trask. He’s got all the size, he’s got the arm, he’s got the stature of what we like. And he’s mobile. Now, he’s not a burner, but he’s mobile enough to do some things.”
😛
February 28th, 2023 at 3:30 pm
The next interesting reaction Bowles has to anything will be his first.
February 28th, 2023 at 3:35 pm
Honest question:
Of the fans that think Trask has “no shot” to be the answer, how many of you also wanted “one more year/weapons for” Winston?
I was happy to say goodbye to Jameis. He was ok, but the turnovers were never going to get us to a championship. If you don’t believe me, Look what we did with a 43 year old QB with no OTA’s.
All I am saying is that if you were pro-Jameis to the bitter end, why are you naysay-Trask?
And, what about your assessment of QB talent makes me confident you know what you’re talking about?
If Trask sucks, ass meets bench, if he balls-hell yeah!
Why do some just fans have their Trask setting on “auto-doubt”, but turn the blindest eye in the known world to mr. Check your sheet-30 for 30 with more turnovers than scores they year. Yuck. Since the 1978 merger, NFL teams that won the turnover battle won the game more that 75% of the time. Facts.
February 28th, 2023 at 3:47 pm
SteveK Says:
February 28th, 2023 at 3:35 pm
Honest question:
Of the fans that think Trask has “no shot” to be the answer, how many of you also wanted “one more year/weapons for” Winston?
I was happy to say goodbye to Jameis. He was ok, but the turnovers were never going to get us to a championship. If you don’t believe me, Look what we did with a 43 year old QB with no OTA’s.
——–
Yes, just some random 43-year old QB.
LOL!
Honest questioning for sure.
February 28th, 2023 at 3:57 pm
You heard the OC – just be the point guard and get the ball in the hands of your studs
Kyle did that very, very well at UF when he got his shot
I’d rather go this route than spend 35mil on Carr or JimmyG
Spend the money in the trenches
February 28th, 2023 at 4:02 pm
I don’t agree at all joe, reading between the lines I think the brass at one buc palace aren’t impressed with trask, I’d be surprised if trask is your qb1 come September.
February 28th, 2023 at 4:04 pm
BucBoy Says:
February 28th, 2023 at 3:29 pm
Bruce Arians Says: “We’re in good hands with Kyle Trask.”
OK, that settles it once and for all! I believe every little thing Bruce says, and I assume you do, also. (Sarcasm)
Let’s wait until he plays, shall we?
February 28th, 2023 at 4:09 pm
TRASK IS YOUR STARTER. Time to find out what he can do.
They can’t afford to bring in anyone significant to alter that as they don’t have the cap room. Not if they want to keep Evans & Godwin and other starters.
Trask is worth taking a gamble on and keeping the most talent around him. The alternative is to bring in a more expensive Vet that would require cutting even MORE starters than they are already forced to. That would make ZERO sense.
The Bucs will definitely bring in other QBs to ‘compete’ with Trask, but they’ll be lower Tier NFL QBs with cheap salaries. Bucs won’t bring in anyone they have to pay $10M+/year.
February 28th, 2023 at 4:16 pm
@D-Rok
You have your panties in a bunch because you said the Bucs have not addressed Trask’s pro-level talent and I gave you a quote from the Bucs’ Super-Bowl-winning-coach Bruce Arians doing just that. There are more quotes, too. If you promise to get your panties in a bunch, I’ll find them for you. Deal? 😛
February 28th, 2023 at 4:25 pm
@BucBoy,
Actually, I just listened to JL’s presser at the combine. Licht went into much more detail about Trask than Joe reported from Bowles. My takeaway is that Licht believes Trask is a good player, and yes, HAS talent at this level.
How much talent, and will he be a good QB and a starter, remains to be seen.
My issue with Bowles’ comments is: When a coach only bothers to mention a player’s work ethic and not his talent, is telling.
We will all know much more after FA and the draft at how the QB situation will look this season.
February 28th, 2023 at 4:25 pm
Once again. Management will have the final decision. No matter what anyone here says. Tomorrow is March. Nowhere near the start of the season. If they want him to start he will. But not today or tomorrow for sure.
February 28th, 2023 at 4:30 pm
Play Trask
February 28th, 2023 at 4:42 pm
D-Rok Says: “I just listened to JL’s presser at the combine. Licht went into much more detail about Trask than Joe reported from Bowles. My takeaway is that Licht believes Trask is a good player, and yes, HAS talent at this level.”
I’m surprised (not) that isn’t reported here. But hey, we did get to see an obviously distorted photo of Trask, so there’s that! 😛
February 28th, 2023 at 5:28 pm
Lol, Joe the only reason it is Trask’s to lose is because he is the only QB on the roster, not because Licht and Bowles want him there. They are both pining for a competition which you don’t get when you are set on a QB already.
Seriously, read what Bowles DIDNT say about the guy he supposedly wants to start. If those are the words he used as the ‘best he can tell us’ then he is 100% not wanting Trask. The words he put out there are platitudes not gratitude’s for a quarterback.
I’m ready to see who he loses ‘his spot’ to in competition
February 28th, 2023 at 5:36 pm
Bowles pretty said what we all should have known. I think like most Bucs fans that it will be a veteran and a drafted QB in camp this year to compete. What Joe said as it sure seem to be Trask job to lose is a fair situation for Trask and usually with competition around it pushes an individual to push and work harder to earn the job I am starting to like more and more the direction of where the Bucs are going
February 28th, 2023 at 6:00 pm
D-Rok, great comments bro. Everything you said. It is more than telling that the Head Coach and GM praise his work ethic and toughness, and that he’ll compete for the job, but say nothing about him being any good.
ButtBoy is incapable of any objectivity at all for #2, he’s got himself all lubed up for another night’s fun with his poster. Even more absurd than Dardung’s fanboy that used to spoodge all over this site about the little feller.
February 28th, 2023 at 6:07 pm
Silly season.
February 28th, 2023 at 9:05 pm
Trask had a WAY better College career than Jameis on 4 less games on an inferior team. Take that for what you will
February 28th, 2023 at 10:08 pm
SB Says:
February 28th, 2023 at 9:05 pm
Trask had a WAY better College career than Jameis on 4 less games on an inferior team. Take that for what you will
——
And Danny Wuerffel had a much better college career than Tom Brady.
In the NFL, you can’t get by with rainbow passes.
Also, while I’m not a college fan, so you can set me straight here, but didn’t Winston get to a national championship game, and weren’t the Gators on their long long decline with Trask there? Again, I don’t watch college, not in the last decade or two, so I’m out of the loop on everything, but haven’t the Gators been bad since Meyer left?
February 28th, 2023 at 10:18 pm
Just so long as the vet the Bucs bring in isn’t one of the expensive ones. I think that will be a waste and ruin our cap situation even more. I honestly don’t even want Baker Mayfield as I think he would be a distraction because you will have a contingent of fans who think he can still be the guy and that the Browns and Panthers just didn’t put him in the right situation to win.
Give me Andy Dalton or Jacoby Brissett and draft either Henden Hooker or Clayton Tune. We should all honestly be upset if Hooker is still there when we pick in the second or third round and the Bucs don’t draft him. I’ll be a little less upset if the draft Tune in one of the later rounds.
Hooker would 100% be a first round pick if he hadn’t been injured and might have even been the second or third QB to go so we are talking a top 5 pick type player. The Bucs better draft him if he is there.
February 28th, 2023 at 10:24 pm
Bucs need to provide Trask with their best afford to help him to become their starter after they invest two years in him. Otherwise they would be so incompetent and poor in management skills to draft a qb and do not give him a chance to start after two years. They couldn’t win super bowl in the past tow years with GOAT let alone with these average old free agent qb’s who could just win a few games for you. Stop wasting times and money and invest in your own home grown players/qb’s.
February 28th, 2023 at 11:57 pm
That is the Entire Point Rod. I’m glad your reading comprehension is not too far off. Trask threw for 43 TDs to 8 INTs in ONE Yr. on a Florida team that was Already in Decline!
He was the LONE brightspot in the last 10 yrs or more.
Winston threw for 55 TDs Total against ACC foes. Trask threw for 65 in 4 less games against Mostly SEC foe. As I said “take it for what you will” Trask was a better QB in College than Winston was. Every metric points it out.
March 1st, 2023 at 7:38 am
I still don’t understand why some of yall want one of those quarterbacks in free agent . We winning nothing with or going to the playoffs with no Bresset, Jimmy G, Carr , especially Gabbert. Why not give Trask a chance at least we don’t know what he can do yet the other quarterbacks we know they suck .
March 1st, 2023 at 11:00 am
@SB
Rod only knows how to write “rainbow”.
March 1st, 2023 at 11:01 am
@Oneilbuc
The Bucs fanbase is almost entirely FSU fanbois or wokers. They’re never gonna like someone from UF who looks like Trask.
March 1st, 2023 at 1:45 pm
Besides gifting JTS a starting a job…