TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers aren’t in a rush to declare a winner in the competition for Tom Brady’s old job.
While 2018 No. 1 overall draft pick Baker Mayfield and inexperienced third-year pro Kyle Trask continue to make strides in learning a new offense being installed this offseason, coach Todd Bowles says he won’t announce a starting quarterback before training camp begins late next month.
“Some time during camp or right after there will be a decision made,” Bowles said during the team’s mandatory minicamp this week.
“It’s still a competition right now. We’re not going to award (anybody) in shorts and T-shirts,” Bowles added. “In any competition, there’s waiting involved. You have to see who wins.”
Mayfield, the first pick in the 2018 draft by the Cleveland Browns, is with his fourth team in six seasons after signing a one-year contract that could be worth up to $8.5 million. The 28-year-old is 31-38 as a NFL starter, including 2-8 with the Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Rams in 2022.
Trask was a second-round pick of the Bucs in 2021 and spent the past two years as the third-stringer behind Brady and Blaine Gabbert. He made his regular-season debut last January, competing 3 of 9 passes for 23 yards against Atlanta in a Week 18 loss that had no bearing on the NFC South standings or Tampa Bay’s playoff seeding.
“Tom is just a pro through and through, so that was such a blessing for me to come into a quarterback room filled with him, Blaine and Ryan (Griffin),” said Trask, a Heisman Trophy finalist at Florida who was drafted two months after Brady led the Bucs to the second Super Bowl title in franchise history.
“They had all the experience in the world,” Trask added, “so just to come into that room and just try to soak up as much knowledge while I was in there, that is a priceless experience for me.”
Brady retired for the second - and what the seven-time Super Bowl winner insists is the last - time in February.
Mayfield, who led the Browns to one playoff berth in four seasons, is excited about the prospect of jumpstarting his career in a system being installed by new offensive coordinator Dave Canales, who takes over play-calling following the firing of Byron Leftwich.
Canales spent the past 13 years working for Pete Carroll - first at USC, and then with the Seattle Seahawks, where he played a role in quarterback Geno Smith earning AP Comeback Player of the Year honors last season.
Teammates say it has been fun to watch Mayfield and Trask compete during voluntary workouts spread over three weeks and a three-day mandatory minicamp that concluded Thursday.
Bowles, meanwhile, isn’t concerned that waiting until training camp to make a decision might hinder the eventual winner from getting an adequate amount of work with the rest of the starters ahead of the regular-season opener.
“I feel comfortable with where I’m at right now. Now, it’s about making sure that my comfortability resonates with everyone else,” said Mayfield, who spent the first four years of his career in Cleveland before beginning the 2022 season with Carolina and finishing with the Rams.
“The quarterback’s job is to make sure everybody gets on the same page and make sure we breathe that confidence throughout the whole team,” Mayfield added. “I feel good with where I am at right now, but there is obviously always room to improve.”
Despite winning their second consecutive NFC South title and third straight playoff berth with Brady at quarterback, the Bucs struggled offensively and finished with a losing record. One of the reasons was the absence of a consistent running game.
Mayfield and Trask are confident the offense will be more balanced under Canales, who will be calling plays for the first time in his career.
“We obviously have a lot of potential to be explosive. … But to me, it’s going to be about staying ahead of the chains, taking care of the ball, and good things will happen,” said Mayfield, who’s thrown for 16,288 yards and 102 touchdowns vs. 64 interceptions in his career.
Trask expects the offense to be less predictable.
“We could come at you a million different ways and then throw it over the top of your head. You just never know,” Trask said. “You saw the success they had in Seattle with that philosophy, and I think if you add our weapons into that, we could be very dangerous. I’m really excited to see how this plays.”
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