Only a miracle was going to prevent the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from regressing at the quarterback position after the retirement of Tom Brady. After all, how do you replace the greatest quarterback of all time? Furthermore, the Buccaneers are one of the teams that rarely see the value in big trades up or big trades out when it comes to draft capital. This means that they would be unlikely to be aggressive in the draft or to grab a big-name veteran.
However, that has left them with an underwhelming quarterback room to put it nicely. The current starter is listed as Baker Mayfield, the former Browns standout who has become something of a journeyman in recent years. He most recently played for the truly terrible 2022 Rams. After him is Kyle Trask, a 2021 second-round pick that the Buccs hoped could challenge Brady for the starting role. Finally, there's John Wofford, the former Rams backup who came over with Mayfield in the offseason. That is not the quarterback room of a team that is looking to win a lot of games. Furthermore, it's been made worse by the footage coming out of the team's OTAs.
OTA Footage Adds To The Pain Of A Bad QB Battle
In footage shared by Kyle Burger, an ABC anchor in Tampa, the true pain of the Buccaneers' QB battle was on display. Both Trask and Mayfield were painfully inaccurate, consistently missing targets or forcing overly-difficult catches for their receivers. The only time the pair consistently threw on-target passes was on routes where their receivers were physically stopping and waiting for the pass to come to them.
Granted, it's early in the offseason workouts and the Buccaneers have plenty of time to figure things out before their September 10 opener in Minnesota. However, even this early in the offseason, you want to be seeing the basic fundamentals from your quarterbacks. The Buccaneers did not make a lot of changes at the wide receiver position, adding five rookies (four undrafted) to their rotation. While Mayfield is a new face on the team, he has been in the NFL since 2018. Meanwhile, Kyle Trask has been with the team since 2021. There is no complete rebuilding of the QB-WR dynamic to blame these bad performances on. Again, it's early in the offseason but if this doesn't improve, it's going to be a long season for Buccaneers fans.
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