Bowles declines to name starting QB at Bucs OTAs

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will have a new starting quarterback this fall, but Todd Bowles doesn't know who it will be just yet.

The team's second-year head coach had Kyle Trask and free-agent addition Baker Mayfield split first-team drills during OTAs.

“It’s the grasp of the offence, it’s the reading of the defence,” Bowles said of his evaluation process. “It’s not necessarily making the big play, but the right play. Then it comes down to moxie, it comes down to intelligence. In-game intelligence and adjustments and fits and film work. You can see who the team galvanizes around and who’s ready to play the first game and you kinda make a decision from there. It’s constant analyzation. Whether it’s small or whether it’s big, it’s constant analysis from now up until we name a starter."

The Bucs' need for a new man under centre arose from the retirement of Tom Brady. The 25-year-old Trask was a second-round pick out of Florida in 2021, but has seen only one game of action over the past two seasons with only nine pass attempts.

Mayfield, 29, is a former Heisman Trophy winner and was the first overall selection of the 2018 NFL Draft out of Oklahoma. He now joins a fourth team in three seasons, having split last season between the Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Rams after a trade from the Cleveland Browns.

Super Bowl winners after the 2020 season, the Bucs finished atop the NFC South last season with an 8-9 record and fell to the Dallas Cowboys in the wild-card round of the playoffs.