With Tom Brady opting for retirement, the Buccaneers have to find a new starting quarterback for the 2022 season.
Many people expect that search to result in the arrival of a player from outside the organization, but they do have Blaine Gabbert and Kyle Trask on hand. Trask didn’t play at all after being drafted in the second round last year, but Gabbert has has started 48 NFL games since being taken 10th overall by the Jaguars in 2011.
Gabbert’s teams lost 35 of those games, but two wins came against winning teams while playing for Bucs head coach Bruce Arians in Arizona in 2017 and Arians cited those wins along with the quality of the Bucs roster while discussing Gabbert’s place in the current mix.
“People may not like the overall record, but Blaine had eight head coaches and eight coordinators his first eight years,” Arians said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “He beat Jacksonville their best year and beat Tennessee their big year for us in Arizona. And he’s been in the system now. I don’t have a problem there and let Kyle continue to grow. Either one. [Gabbert] has never played with a team this good. He’s got all the respect in the locker room that he can have.”
Gabbert’s last regular season start came in 2018 and he’d be a hard sell as Brady’s successor regardless of how much work Arians and the Bucs do to dress up his professional record.