Buccaneers' Todd Bowles reportedly favors Baker Mayfield over Kyle Trask

It appears the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may hold a quarterback competition in name only later this year. 

After it was learned Wednesday that the Buccaneers had agreed to a one-year contract worth up to $8.5 million with free-agent signal-caller Baker Mayfield, NFL Network personality Rich Eisen suggested during his Roku show that Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles favors the No. 1 pick of the 2018 NFL Draft over backup and 2021 second-round choice Kyle Trask.

"Bowles hopes Baker Mayfield’s the guy," Eisen declared, as shared by the JoeBucsFan website. Eisen added that Bowles and company view Mayfield as the successor for recently retired starter Tom Brady. 

"This is the guy after the guy," Eisen said about Mayfield. "If anybody can be the guy after the guy, it’s this guy." 

Eisen's information isn't necessarily new. For a piece published on March 1, Armando Salguero of Outkick and Fox News noted that "Bowles liked Mayfield when the (New York Jets) he coached at the time were evaluating quarterbacks for the 2018 draft." Salguero also wrote that "Bowles liked Mayfield better" than Sam Darnold, whom the Jets selected with pick No. 3 after Mayfield went to the Cleveland Browns with the first-overall choice. 

The Browns landed Deshaun Watson from the Houston Texans in March 2022 and later sent Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers in July. Carolina parted ways with Mayfield in December after he largely failed to impress with that organization, but he found a home and some success with the Los Angeles Rams. Over five appearances and four starts with the Rams, Mayfield completed 63.6% of his 129 passes for 850 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions. 

Trask, meanwhile, has attempted a total of nine career NFL regular season passes. 

With Brady seemingly not walking back through the door as a QB1, it's been thought that Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht would acquire a veteran who would legitimately compete with Trask. Bowles may already have a different plan in mind for summer workouts.