Maybe the Tampa Bay Buccaneers know something about backup quarterback Kyle Trask the rest of us don’t. Maybe that’s why they keep putting their faith in Trask despite throwing just 11 passes through his first 4 seasons.
ESPN’s Ben Solak called the Buccaneers bringing Trask back as their No. 2 quarterback as the team’s worst offseason move.
“I prefer my contending teams to take QB2 a little more seriously,” Solak wrote on March 26. “Trask has attempted exactly 11 passes in NFL action (and completed four of them, for as much as that matters). What happens if Baker Mayfield goes down for a month while the 7-4 Buccaneers are in the thick of the NFC South race? Do they really trust Trask to go 2-2 and keep them on a playoff pace? They’d know better than me, as I have only 11 Trask passes to consider. Far more experienced QB2s were available, though, and I hope the Bucs don’t find themselves wishing they looked elsewhere to bolster the position.”
Trask signed a 1-year, $2.78 million contract with the Buccaneers on March 12. He spent the first 2 years of his career as the backup to Tom Brady and the last 2 seasons as the backup to Baker Mayfield. Trask’s new contract will push his career earnings to $8.2 million following the 2025 season.
Bucs Still Don’t Know What They Have in Trask
The Buccaneers can’t say they know exactly what they have in Trask if he’s yet to start an NFL game — preseason action be damned. Trask has played in only 4 games with zero starts, zero touchdowns and zero interceptions on 4-of-11 passing for 28 yards.
Trask’s inability to convince the Buccaneers he was the best option after Brady’s retirement was perhaps the most telling thing that’s happened in his NFL career — Tampa Bay instead chose Mayfield to come play on a 1-year, $3 million “prove it” deal in 2023 that he turned into a 3-year, $100 million contract before the 2024 season.
Before the 2024 season, Bleacher Report’s Maurice Moton ranked Trask 30th out of all 32 backups, ahead of only Clayton Tune of the Arizona Cardinals and Stetson Bennett of the Los Angeles Rams.
“Most of the quarterbacks in the lowest tier have had rough career starts with poor performances,” Moton wrote in his August 29 story, pointing out that Trask has “minimal regular season experience.”
Trask, 6-foot-5 and 236 pounds, was was named All-SEC for Florida in 2020 after he threw for career highs of 4,328 yards, 43 touchdowns and just 8 interceptions.
NFL Draft Opportunity to Add Another QB
Because the contract for Trask is so minimal and because third-string quarterback Michael Pratt has no guarantee of a roster spot, there’s still a chance the Buccaneers could take another backup quarterback in the later rounds of the 2025 NFL draft.
One candidate could be Louisville’s Tyler Shough, who played 7 seasons at 3 different Power Four schools and will turn 26 years old in September. Shough had his best college season in 2024 with the Cardinals, throwing for 3,195 yards, 23 touchdowns and 6 interceptions in 12 games while completing 62.7 percent of his passes.
Bleacher Report’s Brent Sobleski put Shough on his list of the most underrated NFL prospects headed into the NFL Scouting Combine.
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