Todd Bowles – No schedule named Pirates starting QB

Tampa, Fla. — There is no schedule for naming a quarterback for the 2023 season, Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles said Sunday, and the team will likely enter its third and final preseason game on Aug. 26 against the Baltimore Ravens without naming a starting quarterback.

At the moment, both Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask are expected to play in that match.

“We don’t have a schedule on that,” Bowles said when asked when he would name the rookie. “We’ll call it when we call it. We feel comfortable with where we’re at, so we’ll go from there.”

It is not specified who will start this game or how the cast will be divided. Right now, the Bucs only have two quarterbacks, though John Walford suffered a neck injury in the second half of Saturday night against the New York Jets in Tampa Bay’s second preseason game.

If Bowles does indeed wait until after the third preseason game to name a player, he will give the team two weeks to practice for a start. Bowles said he is not concerned about the lack of continuity in this regard.

“They’ve got it all campy; they’ve been through it all spring. We don’t worry about the continuity part—everyone has a lot of the cast together,” Bowles said. “Two weeks will be fine for us. We just need some playing time, so everyone will play.”

Mayfield started the first preseason game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, with Trask entering during the second quarter. The initial plan against the Jets was for Trask to start and Mayfield to come on. But Bowles made a sound and chose to sit out Mayfield, leading some to speculate that Mayfield had won the starting job, as Bowles pitched several starters in that preseason.

But the Bowles’ explanation is that they wanted to see Trask, who had played in only one regular-season NFL game before, run the two-minute drill to wrap up the inning. But instead of Mayfield coming on in the second half, it was Walford who played in the third quarter before suffering a neck injury. Trask ended up returning to Walford.

“It was all about whether we were going to keep the offensive line in the ball game,” Bowles said. “We really wanted to see Kyle in the two-minute position, so once we got to the two-minute position and Kyle realized that, we didn’t really want to play with Baker in the second half because we were changing line-ups we wanted John to get some work so we left. [Mayfield] Outside.”

In extended action Saturday night, Trask managed to throw his first preseason touchdown—a 33-yard pass to rookie Trey Palmer on another drive—and didn’t turn the ball over, which was an improvement from the first preseason game against the Steelers, where he was picked off on possession. The first. So far this season, Trask has completed 26 of 38 pass attempts for 317 yards, with a touchdown, an interception and a fumble (recovered by tight end Cade Otton).

On the other hand, Mayfield completed 8 of 9 passes for 63 yards, a touchdown (also to Palmer) and no interceptions against the Steelers.

Bowles indicated that the starting decision would involve more than just preseason games, with coaching performance factoring in. For that matter, Trask threw fewer interceptions than Mayfield, but Mayfield also made more plays.

Players have indicated that they would like to see the starters very soon to improve the chemistry and give the right starting reps. From OTAs through minicamp, Mayfield and Trask split the cast, while in the past three years, with Tom Brady at the helm, Brady has been getting nearly 70% of the shots.

Wide receiver Mike Evans said earlier this week, “We want to know who the starter will be soon so we can keep going and he can control the offense.”