Buccaneers reveal preseason plans for Baker Mayfield, Kyle Trask

It appears the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won't name a starting quarterback until Aug. 20 at the absolute earliest. 

While speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles revealed that free-agency signing Baker Mayfield and 2021 second-round draft pick Kyle Trask will both receive starts during the preseason that begins for Tampa Bay with a home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers this Friday night. 

"Whoever starts this game, the other one will start the next game and get the same amount of reps," Bowles said of his two signal-callers after Tuesday's practice, as shared by the club's website. "Once we sit down and go through that on Thursday, we'll have a better decision. They both should expect to play."

Trask seemingly fell behind in the battle for the starting job during organized team activities but has since closed the gap and outperformed Mayfield across multiple practices, particularly as it pertains to limiting turnovers. The team's first depth chart of the summer released Tuesday morning listed Mayfield OR Trask as the team's QB1 ahead of Friday's action. 

The JoeBucsFan website noted that Mayfield "may have had the best practice since he became a Bucs quarterback" on Tuesday minus an intercepted pass the 28-year-old ideally wouldn't attempt in a meaningful game. In total, Tampa Bay's defense forced five picks during the session. 

Joey Knight of the Tampa Bay Times explained that Trask was responsible for throwing three of those interceptions. 

"It was good for them, creating the turnovers, obviously getting some – we hadn't gotten many in a couple days," Bowles said about his defense. "They're coming together as a group. They're talking more. Some situations were like last-play situations where they had to throw it so it wasn't totally defense – you had to put it in the air at some point. But I thought they did a good job getting their hands on the balls."

The Buccaneers' second contest of the preseason is a matchup at the New York Jets on Aug. 19, and Tampa Bay then wraps that portion of the calendar up with a home game versus the Baltimore Ravens on Aug. 26. Depending on how Mayfield and Trask perform, Bowles may not name his Week 1 starter until he sees the quarterbacks face Baltimore's defense on the final Saturday of the month.