Kyle Trask Expected by Bucs Players to Get Shot at QB1 After Tom Brady Retirement

With Tom Brady calling it a career this offseason, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a huge question on their hands: Who will replace him at quarterback?

Don't dismiss Kyle Trask just yet.

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported on Saturday that he "caught up with a few Bucs players in Phoenix who believe Trask will get a shot at QB1 for Tampa. The feeling is Trask's draft pedigree as a second-round pick, coupled with a scarcity of realistic options on the market, will get him on the field."

Trask, 24, has only appeared in one NFL game, completing three of his nine pass attempts for 23 yards this past season.

Not exactly a resume to write home about, though Brady's backups have rarely gotten much playing time throughout the course of his legendary career.

Trask has impressed coaches with his work ethic behind the scenes, however.

"Since he's been here, every time I look out my window, he's out there working on his own," Bucs' head coach Todd Bowles told reporters in January. "When his time comes, he's going to be ready because I see him working at it every day. He has inner toughness, he has inner strength and he has the drive and the will to win. If you put that together, given the opportunity, I think he's going to take advantage of it."

Still, it's hard to imagine the Bucs won't bring in competition at the position via free agency or the draft. Re-signing veteran Blaine Gabbert is one option for Tampa Bay. Attempting to make a splashier move for Derek Carr or players like Aaron Rodgers and Lamar Jackson, if either becomes available via trade, is another.

So there's no guarantee that Trask will get a true chance to compete for the starting gig. But linebacker Lavonte David is rooting for him, as he told WDAE Radio on Thursday (h/t Joe Bucs Fan):

"Obviously you want to get a top-of-market guy like Aaron Rodgers, Derek Carr, but in the situation that we're in, being a GM and being realistic, you have to go with Kyle Trask. You have to put all your all your faith in Kyle Trask. You drafted him in the second round. You got the pieces; you gotta put the pieces around him before he can succeed. And you got to get the right offensive coach in who can be able to develop him to be the playmaker that we all know he can be."

"I love what I see [of Trask]. He's a prototypical guy. You know, he's able to move. He's got a nice ball. Getting a chance to compete against him, obviously when he was on the scout team he made a lot of good throws against [the Bucs defense] and stuff like that. So I definitely feel like he could be a guy who could, you know, come in and help turn us into a winning football team."

While the Bucs may eventually bring in a veteran QB, it's at least a good sign for Trask that his head coach and one of his veteran teammates have been pleased with what they've seen from him.