The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Kyle Trask is staying focused on what he can do as the quarterback competition rolls on between he and Baker Mayfield.
“I’ve been in a lot of quarterback competitions in my football career and I think the main thing you can focus on is just playing the best that you can,” Trask said Monday, via the team’s website. “There’s a lot of things that are out of your hands, in terms of the competition. It’s the same for me: stay focused on what I can do. I know it’s obviously cliché but it’s the truth – I’m just focused on getting our offense in the best play, the best checks that I possibly can.”
Trask, who sat behind Tom Brady and Blaine Gabbert the past two seasons, suddenly has a realistic shot to be a starting quarterback in the NFL following a strong start to training camp. The 2021 second-round pick out of Florida has thrown just two interceptions through 10 practices, while Mayfield, the former No. 1 overall pick, has turned it over seven times.
That, however, is practice. A better gauge to see where things stand will happen during the preseason, with game No. 1 coming this Friday against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Per JC Allen of Pewter Report, Mayfield will get the start. Trask’s turn to come onto the field first will come in the second preseason game against the New York Jets.
Bucs’ QB competition heating up between Kyle Trask, Baker Mayfield
Trask said his approach will remain the same as he goes up against opposing defenses in live action.
“It’s another brick in this competition, if you will,” Trask said. “There’s nothing I can focus on other than just going out there and trying to run the play the best that I possibly can and play clean football and just go out there and have fun.”
Mayfield, meanwhile, believes the quarterback competition is doing a great job of bringing out the best between he and Trask.
“It’s great for everybody, to be honest with you,” Mayfield said this past week. “When the quarterback room is having success, it shows what this offense can be capable of. We’re distributors within this system – just getting the ball out, it’s not like we’re trying to hone in on one guy. Yeah, there will be specific plays where we want to get a guy open, but for right now it’s taking what the defense gives you.
“The past few days, yeah, Kyle [Trask] and John [Wolford] have had great practices of just doing that – going through the system, getting the ball out and making the reads. I think people are starting to see what we’re going to be capable of, and obviously, as we get used to pads more and more, the run game will get going as well. It’s just slowly coming together.”
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