The Buccaneers will find out their season opening game Thursday during the NFL’s schedule release. They still won’t know who their starting quarterback is for that game.
Offensive coordinator Dave Canales said the team sees “no rush” to choose between Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask.
“For me, it’s a win-win when you create a competition,” Canales said Wednesday, via Greg Auman of TheAthletic.com. “Here’s why: If you name a starter today, the backup guy starts thinking like that. But if you say this is a competition, we’re going to allow [them] to go into the preseason, let them show us they can manage, to get us into the right play, to take care of the ball, that’s going to be the determining factor, really.
“I would like to take it as far as I can. . . . Like I told [General Manager Jason Licht] early on, I will coach the crap out of whoever you give me, and whoever we decide to [start], but I’ll have them both ready.”
Mayfield, 28, has the edge in experience with 69 career starts, 16,288 passing yards and 102 touchdowns in five NFL seasons. He also has playoff experience.
Trask, 25, has attempted only nine passes since the Bucs made him a second-round pick in 2021.
The Bucs, though, didn’t hand Mayfield the job after signing him in free agency. They are giving Trask a legitimate shot.
“I’m pretty sure the guys will get even reps, and then we just go by seeing what you do every day,” quarterbacks coach Thad Lewis said. “You’re charting incompletions. You’re charting mental errors.
“Competition makes everybody great.”