The Tampa Bay Buccaneers head into training camp with a full-fledged quarterback competition. This is a situation most general managers wouldn’t want to be in. Buccaneers’ general manager Jason Licht isn’t one of them, in fact he’s excited to watch the battle between Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask play out.
Licht held his first press conference of training camp this week where he talked about the quarterback competition.
“One thing I’m looking forward to is, this is really the first time since I’ve been here, and I’m going on Year 10, of a true quarterback competition,” Licht stated. “One thing I’m looking forward to is just how hyper-focused we’re going to be in those practices here at the beginning of camp for the first few weeks, at least. Just to see who takes the next step forward. People can have in their head, ‘Well, it seems like it’s for sure going to be this person or it’s not going to be this person,’ but until we’re out there, anything can happen. It’s going to be a lot of fun just to really focus on how this is going to play out.”
Licht continued,
“It’s probably the same things that we’ve been saying for a long time about Kyle – the inner strength that he has, the inner confidence, nothing is too big for him,” said Licht. “He’s had to sit and wait for his opportunity his entire football career and has done that now. Nothing seems too big for him, once again. He’s made tremendous strides here just this spring from where he was when we first got him. And then with Baker, he’s full of energy, he does all the right things, he’s working his butt off, he has a little bit of an attraction to him because of the energy that he has out there. But, once again, once the bullets start flying and we start playing, people [and] players gravitate to the player that they think is going to give them the best opportunity to win.”
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Buccaneers’ head coach Todd Bowles has a timetable set in his mind.
“Like I said, I’ve got a timetable in my head,” said Bowles via the team’s website. “Obviously, it will be [decided in the] preseason – I’m not going to make it in the regular season. I have a timeline in my head, I’ve got my notes down. We talked as an offensive staff and as a coaching staff and we understand where we’re going. They know where I’m at and they know how I feel, so we’ll go with that.”
The Buccaneers are excited to watch this competition play out as are the rest of us. Whether it’s Mayfield or Trask at the helm, it’s definitely a new, or at least different day in Tampa Bay.
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