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Jenna Laine, ESPN Staff Writer
TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles said Sunday that there is no timetable to name a starting quarterback for the 2023 season, and it is possible the team will enter its third and final preseason game Aug. 26 against the Baltimore Ravens without naming a starting quarterback.
Right now, the expectation is that both Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask will play in that game.
“We don’t have a timetable on it,” Bowles said when asked when he’ll name a starter. “We’ll name it when we name it. We feel comfortable with where we’re at, so we’ll go from there.”
No determination has been made as to who will start that game or how the reps will be divvied up. Right now, the Bucs have only two healthy quarterbacks, though, with John Wolford having suffered a neck injury in the second half Saturday night against the New York Jets in Tampa Bay’s second preseason game.
If Bowles indeed waits until after the third preseason game to name a starter, it would give the team two weeks to practice with a starter. Bowles said he was not concerned about lack of continuity in that regard.
“They’ve had it all camp; they’ve had it all spring. We don’t worry about the continuity part — everybody has gotten plenty of reps together,” Bowles said. “Two weeks will be fine for us. We just need some game time, so everybody is going to play.”
Mayfield started the first preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers with Trask coming in during the second quarter. The initial plan against the Jets was for Trask to start and Mayfield to come in. But Bowles made an audible and opted to sit Mayfield, which led some to speculate that Mayfield had won the starting job, as Bowles has held out several starters this preseason.
But Bowles’ explanation is that they wanted to see Trask, who has only played in one regular-season NFL game before, run the two-minute drill to close out the half. But then instead of Mayfield coming in for the second half, it was Wolford, who played in the third quarter before suffering a neck injury. Trask wound up coming back in for Wolford.
“It was all about whether we were going to keep the offensive line in the ballgame,” Bowles said. “We really wanted to see Kyle in a two-minute situation, so once we got to the two-minute situation and Kyle got that in, we really didn’t want to play Baker in the second half because we were changing the line up. We wanted John to get some of the work, so we left [Mayfield] out.”
In extended action Saturday night, Trask managed to throw his first preseason touchdown — a 33-yard pass to rookie Trey Palmer on a post route — and he didn’t turn the ball over, which was an improvement from the first preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he was picked off on his first possession. So far this preseason, Trask has completed 26-of-38 pass attempts for 317 yards, a touchdown, an interception, and a fumble (it was recovered by tight end Cade Otton).
Mayfield, on the other hand, completed 8-of-9 passes for 63 passing yards, a touchdown (also to Palmer) and no interceptions against the Steelers. Bowles indicated that the decision would encompass more than just preseason games, with practice performance accounted for. In that regard, Trask has thrown fewer interceptions than Mayfield, but Mayfield has also made more plays.
Players have indicated that they would like to know very soon who the starter is going to be to improve chemistry and to give the starter adequate reps. From OTAs through minicamp, Mayfield and Trask have split reps whereas in the past three years with Tom Brady at the helm, Brady was getting roughly 70% of the snaps.
Wide receiver Mike Evans said earlier this week, “We want to know who the starter is gonna be soon so we can just keep working and he can take control of the offense.”