Todd Bowles Has A Couple Of Decisions To Make

August 27th, 2026

Will he start Friday?

Joe has no idea how much thought coaches put into a worthless preseason game, especially the last one. Usually that’s a game for guys who need work and/or are on the bubble. Last time to make a good impression.

As KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles said yesterday for those players, “Play [your] butts off.”

But two questions loom for Bowles and his staff that he had no answer for yesterday.

The first is, who starts at quarterback tomorrow night in the final worthless preseason game of the summer. Bowles has already said the projected starters for Week 1 at Cincinnati will not play.

So no Baker Mayfield.

That leaves the Bucs with Jake Browning, Jalon Daniels and Connor Bazelak. Bowles noted there has been no decision made yet on which of the three will start.

“Not yet,” Bowles said. “We’re going to sit down and meet about it.”

Then there is oft-injured Benjamin Morrison. The corner has missed quite a bit of practice, but he has practiced for a little over a week and has not (yet) pulled a hamstring. He certainly needs the reps but Bowles isn’t sure if he’s well enough for game action.

“He looked OK in practice,” Bowles said of Morrison. “We’re going to talk about the guys who are going to play, so it will be interesting to see.

“I’d like to see him out there and [see him] get some snaps in because he hasn’t played all preseason, but we’ll see.”

The thing with Morrison, he’s so brittle that just playing the guy in a worthless preseason game, you’re liable to lose him for two or three regular-season games with yet another pulled hamstring.

So with Morrison, it’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t. He needs the work, but can the Bucs afford to risk losing him to another hamstring?

3 Responses to “Todd Bowles Has A Couple Of Decisions To Make”

  1. Steven007 Says:

    If Morrison is that fragile, and so far the magic 8 Ball has replied Yes, with frequency, might as well solidify that fact sooner rather than later. He needs reps. He’s apparently marginally healthy. Play him and see how he does. I mean why not? If he makes it through unscathed, great. If not, then he’ll have some time to heal up before his next pre-injury showing.

  2. Bucs4kicks38 Says:

    Cj Carr

  3. Brian in FL Says:

    Word is that only baker and JD got reps today at QB. The writing seems to be on the wall that we will head into the season with baker #1 and JD #2 with probably browning on the PS. Barring something crazy happening between now and cut day of course.

 

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