Bucs still have more questions than answers with Kyle Trask
In the last regular-season game of his second NFL season, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Kyle Trask finally got to see the field for the first time outside of preseason action.
It wasn’t much to write home about, as Trask entered Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons about halfway through the fourth quarter, completing just three of his nine pass attempts for 23 yards.
Tampa Bay’s decision-making at quarterback was puzzling Sunday, as Tom Brady played the first half before being relieved by veteran backup Blaine Gabbert. With the Bucs having already locked up the No. 4 seed in the NFC playoff bracket, and nothing to gain by risking injury to their key players against the Falcons, Brady and the rest of the starters spent the remainder of the game on the bench.
Gabbert’s already got plenty of NFL experience under his belt, so it’s strange that the Bucs didn’t give Trask more action Sunday. A second-round pick in the 2021 NFL draft, Trask has been a healthy scratch for nearly every game of his career so far, with Tampa Bay preferring to keep Gabbert as the more proven backup to Brady.
Trask also happens to be the only Bucs quarterback under contract past this season, as both Brady and Gabbert are set to be free agents.
Sunday’s game was the perfect opportunity to let Trask play most (if not all) of a game that couldn’t accomplish anything for the Bucs in terms of their playoff standing, since they had already won the NFC South and couldn’t get any higher than the No. 4 seed.
The Bucs invested an early pick in Trask, but he’ll head into the third year of his four-year rookie contract next season, and Tampa Bay still has no idea what they have in the former Florida Gator. After two years of holding a clipboard behind Brady and Gabbert, Trask is no closer to proving himself to the Bucs than he was when they drafted him.
Nine pass attempts in half a quarter Sunday, along with some preseason throws over the past two years, isn’t nearly enough for the Bucs to know whether or not he can be the starter next season.
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