Bucs Had The Right Idea In Drafting QB Kyle Trask

For a guy who has hardly played a down for the Bucs, Kyle Trask is quite a polarizing figure.

Tampa Bay’s backup quarterback is entering a contract year with most fans feeling like the former Gators star was a wasted draft pick.

With Tom Brady entering his second season with the Bucs fresh off a Super Bowl LV title and all of the team’s starters re-signed for a run at a repeat championship, Bucs general manager Jason Licht and head coach Bruce Arians wanted to possibly draft Brady’s eventual replacement and groom him behind the future Hall of Famer.

The process was right, but the pick – ultimately the player – wasn’t.

At least not yet.

With Trask entering a contract year, the Bucs may truly never know if he can develop into a starter.

In a results-oriented world, there isn’t much forgiveness for high draft picks that don’t pan out – even if the process was sound.

The team is working hard to re-sign free agent quarterback Baker Mayfield, who wound up succeeding Brady as the starter last year. Yet some Bucs fans are clamoring for the team to draft another quarterback this year, perhaps Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., who hails from the Tampa Bay area, because Trask hasn’t proved to be a long-term answer. Or maybe those fans just don’t believe in Mayfield.

And the Bucs should draft another quarterback because the process is sound.

In fact, Tampa Bay should draft more quarterbacks more frequently to try to find a better long-term answer at the quarterback position – regardless of whether the team signs Mayfield to a big deal or not. And this might be the year to select another one as there is a robust group of young signal callers available in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Prior to Trask, who was the second-round pick in 2021, the last QB the Bucs drafted was Jameis Winston with the first overall pick in 2015. That’s just two signal callers in the last decade.

The Bucs were fortunate to sign Brady in free agency in 2020. In fact, most of the franchise’s overall success has happened with free agent quarterbacks, beginning with Brad Johnson, who helped win Super Bowl XXXVII in 2002, and continuing with Brian Griese and Jeff Garcia, who helped win division titles in 2005 and 2007, respectively, before Brady’s arrival over a decade later.

Tampa Bay has not had much luck drafting quarterbacks over the last four decades, especially with first-round picks like Vinny Testaverde, Trent Dilfer, Josh Freeman and Winston not panning out. Sooner or later, the Bucs will hit on a future franchise signal caller, and it may not even be with another first-round pick.

Time Is Running Out On Kyle Trask With The Bucs

Greatness, as they say, typically shows up early.

San Francisco owner Jed York recently said that Brock Purdy, who was the 49ers’ seventh-round pick in 2022, was the best quarterback in training camp that year. After injuries to starter Jimmy Garoppolo and backup Trey Lance, Purdy was forced into the lineup against Tampa Bay at midseason and has been the 49ers’ starter ever since. Purdy made his first Pro Bowl this year.

The truth is that Trask couldn’t beat out veteran backup Blaine Gabbert in his first two seasons in the league, and didn’t beat out Baker Mayfield for the starting job in 2023.

Now Trask is faced with the unenviable task of trying to impress a third offensive coordinator over the past three seasons with the recent hire of Liam Coen. Part of the reason why Coen was selected to replace Dave Canales as the Bucs’ play-caller is because he coached Mayfield for a few games at the end of the 2022 season in Los Angeles, in addition to John Wolford, who is Tampa Bay’s third-string quarterback.

“In 2022 in L.A. we had to pivot [with the injury to starter Matthew Stafford]. We had John. I’ve coached John for years and I know what makes him tick. I don’t know Kyle Trask, but I know John.

Bucs RT Tristan Wirfs – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“I actually watched Kyle Trask a good amount coming out during that COVID year in 2021 and I watched him throw an unbelievable seed against the Colts in the back of the right of the end zone to Godwin, which wound up being incomplete. But I think he’s got some accuracy and some ability.”

The problem most fans have with Trask – outside of Gators loyalists who also follow the Bucs – is the fact that Tampa Bay suffered some injuries late in the 2021 season that contributed to a crushing home loss to the Rams in the NFC Divisional Playoffs.

Because Tampa Bay lost right tackle Tristan Wirfs in the Wild Card round of the playoffs in 2021, having another offensive tackle like Brady Christensen, who went to the Panthers with the 70th overall pick, certainly could’ve helped the Bucs more than a backup QB like Trask, who was drafted 64th overall.

In hindsight, drafting Alim McNeill, who went nine picks later to Detroit at No. 72 overall in 2021, would have been better, as the Bucs wouldn’t have had to draft defensive tackle Logan Hall with their first pick in 2022. McNeill is coming off a career-high five-sack season in 2023 and helped the Lions get to the NFC Championship Game.

But just because this particular result didn’t go the Bucs’ way, it doesn’t mean they should abandon the process behind it.

Drafting QBs Despite Having An Established Starter Has Worked For Some Teams

Most NFL fans outside of Kansas City might forget that Patrick Mahomes spent most of his rookie season on the bench. The Chiefs drafted Mahomes with the 10th overall pick in 2017 when the team already had Alex Smith as the starter, coming off a 12-4 season.

Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Also that year, the Ravens traded up into the first round to select Lamar Jackson with the 32nd overall pick in 2017 while veteran Joe Flacco was Baltimore’s quarterback. Green Bay drafted Jordan Love with the 26th overall pick in the first round in 2020 and he had to wait two years behind Aaron Rodgers before he got the chance to start.

There are examples of where the process was sound, and it ultimately worked with the selection of a more than capable replacement at quarterback.

Pittsburgh tried to find a successor for Ben Roethlisberger, but it has yet to work out despite multiple attempts. The Steelers selected Mason Rudolph with a third-round pick in 2018 and Kenny Pickett in the first round of the 2023 draft.

Because Rudolph didn’t pan out, Pittsburgh had to sign Mitch Trubisky as a free agent in 2022. Trubisky was cut this offseason and now the Steelers might be looking for yet another quarterback as Rudolph and Pickett haven’t panned out.

The 49ers lucked out by drafting another quarterback even after trading up to select Trey Lance with the third overall pick in 2021. San Francisco spent the final pick in the 2022 draft on Brock Purdy, which turned out to be fortunate given the fact that Lance might be a bust and was traded to Dallas last year.

With Trask’s contract expiring after this season, the Bucs would be wise to draft his replacement this year.

And who knows? Tampa Bay’s new QB could ultimately replace Mayfield one day, too.

Rookie Starting Quarterbacks Come With Better Cap Values

Imagine if the Bucs had a quarterback the caliber of Jordan Love or Brock Purdy succeeding Tom Brady in Tampa Bay. That was the idea behind drafting Kyle Trask in 2021.

49ers QB Brock Purdy – Photo by: USA Today

This is no knock on Baker Mayfield, who has been the next best thing since Brady retired at the end of the 2022 season. But Mayfield is set to cost the Bucs at least $30 million per season – likely more – with his contract extension.

Yet Love, who was a former first-round pick in 2020, is entering a contract year in Green Bay and is set to have a cap hit of just $12,757,731. That’s still a bargain for an NFL starting quarterback.

Purdy is even cheaper with a $1,004,253 cap hit – with two years left on his rookie deal. Getting high level play at the quarterback position from a player on his rookie deal is what NFL teams dream of.

So just because it hasn’t worked out with Trask doesn’t mean that the Bucs should avoid drafting another quarterback this year or in future years until they find a potential franchise quarterback as the Packers and 49ers did with Love and Purdy.

With more pressing needs this year at outside linebacker, interior offensive line and in the secondary, it wouldn’t make sense to draft a quarterback in the first two rounds only to have that QB sit on the bench for years behind Mayfield the way Trask did behind Brady. Perhaps a mid-round pick like Tulane’s Michael Pratt would be a better, less risky investment.

Of course, the problem is that Day 3 quarterbacks rarely pan out. Brady and Purdy are definitely the exceptions.

Love was a first-round pick, but that move was heavily criticized at the time because Aaron Rodgers was still the starter and in his prime. Now, the Packers are the envy of the NFL with three seamless transitions from Brett Favre to Rodgers to Love. Green Bay is embarking on 40 consecutive years of continued great QB play between those three as a result.

A succession plan like that was what the process behind the Trask selection was all about. It didn’t work that way this time, but that doesn’t mean Tampa Bay should give up on chasing an eventual perfect transition from Mayfield.

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