Mike Florio and Myles Simmons analyze Bucs OC Dave Canales’ philosophy about QB competition and assess if it’s truly beneficial for the players or indicates the team doesn't have a strong starting option.

Video Transcript

- Here's Dave Canales, the new Offensive Coordinator on the Buccaneers, on whether or not there's any reason for them to name a starting quarterback between Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask now.

DAVE CANALES: Yeah, I think philosophically, for me, coming from Seattle, best guy gets the job. So you saw it happen last year firsthand. It was Geno Smith, it was Drew Lock, and it was a true competition. For me, it's a win-win when you create a competition. Here's why.

If you name a starter today, the backup guy starts thinking like a backup. OK. But if you say, this is a competition. We're going to allow us to go into the preseason, let them show us they can manage to get us into the right play. They can take care of the ball. That's going to be the determining factor really is who takes care of the ball? And then the bonus is, now, who pushes it down the field?

But if we can play great defense, run, and take care of the ball, we're going to be a great team. So the guy who can show that is going to win the job.

- And look, I mean, Baker Mayfield is in the right mindset to deal with whatever they throw at him. And I'm not a big proponent of splitting reps all the way through until the end because whoever wins isn't as prepared as it could have been. Competition makes you better, I get it.

But there's something to be said for having a guy. He's our guy. We've picked our guy. And we're behind our guy. And everything we're doing is focused on getting us ready to win with our guy. And just the fact that, well, it just shows you how far Baker Mayfield's fallen. He's got to go enter an open competition against a second round pick who really hasn't done all that much, hasn't done anything in two years in the NFL.

But, again, Mayfield's not going to complain. He's been through some crap the past few years, Myles, and, you know, he's going to deal with it. And Trask isn't complaining either. So they go compete, and we see who the best guy is.

- Yeah, I mean, I know he referenced the Seattle thing. And that's kind of the only quarterback competition in my recent memory where it's like it really did work out for the guy who won the competition and the team that held the competition. But usually you're having a quarterback competition because you don't know what's going to happen. And it's like if you have two quarterbacks, you really have two backups.

I just kind of subscribe to that philosophy. And so I don't really know what's going to happen with the Buccaneers. I don't necessarily think they're going to be all that good. I don't really know that a competition is going to make the Buccaneers into something that they're not, which I think is a good football team. But I understand the philosophy that Canales was talking about there where you want both guys to be competing for as long as possible.

And that makes sense. But I don't really know that that's going to spell really good things for the Buccaneers and their fans this year.

- A lot of times when you have an open competition, the guy who wins the job, wins the right to be the first one benched. And I'm surprised it didn't happen last year. But the Seahawks were good, and they made the playoffs. And there was never an occasion for Geno Smith to be benched for Drew Lock.