Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Kyle Trask’s NFL career might not be dead yet.
“Former Buccaneers QB Kyle Trask is working out today for the Carolina Panthers,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter wrote on his official X account on Wednesday morning.
Trask was a 2nd-round pick by the Buccaneers in the 2021 NFL Draft and spent 2 seasons as the backup to Tom Brady and 2 seasons as the backup to Baker Mayfield before the Buccaneers released him in August 2025.
He had a pair of workouts with the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints after being released, but eventually landed on the Atlanta Falcons‘ practice squad.
Bucs Urged to Consider Bringing Trask Back
Whatever flaws the Buccaneers saw in Trask that led to his release before the 2025 season might not seem so pronounced now.
That’s what going 8-9 and missing the playoffs tends to do. It puts things in perspective. In each of Trask’s 4 seasons as a backup on the Buccaneers after he was selected in the 2nd round (No. 65 overall) of the 2021 NFL draft, the team made the playoffs.
In the 1st season without him, they did not. And looked lost on offense most of the way.
In February, Pewter Report’s Matt Matera floated the possibility of the Buccaneers reuniting with Trask after he spent the 2025 season with the Atlanta Falcons, where he played for new Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Zac Robinson.
“Considering the Bucs’ cap situation, they won’t be putting much more into another quarterback than the $1.25 million they gave to Bridgewater,” Matera wrote. “That puts Tampa Bay in the bracket for players like Gardner Minshew, Skylar Thompson or Kyle Allen. However, another route they could go with his bringing back Kyle Trask for another go in training camp to see how he looks with a second trial in Tampa Bay.”
The Buccaneers currently have Jake Browning as their QB2 with Connor Bazelak and undrafted free agent Jalon Daniels battling for the QB3 spot.
Kyle Trask’s Release Shocked Fans in 2025
Trask’s release was perhaps the most shocking personnel move last offseason for the Buccaneers, who seemed to signal their confidence in him after they signed him to a 1-year, $2.78 million contract in March 2025.
Trask, 6-foot-5 and 236 pounds, got a tryout with the Indianapolis Colts before Week 7 before he finally landed a job with the Falcons.
“(Trask’s) new home with the Falcons makes perfect sense,” Heavy.com’s Christopher Sheppard wrote on November 19. “After the season-ending injury to Michael Penix Jr., the Falcons needed some kind of insurance as they only had two rostered QBs in Kirk Cousins and Easton Stick.”
Even before his release, NFL insiders were questioning why the Buccaneers would bring back Trask for another season.
ESPN’s Ben Solak called the Buccaneers bringing Trask back as their No. 2 quarterback 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.”
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