Kyle Trask, Buccaneers Agree to 4-Year Rookie Contract

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and quarterback Kyle Trask agreed to a four-year, $5.5 million rookie-scale contract Tuesday:

Trask's deal is fully guaranteed and comes with a $1.4 million signing bonus. The Florida product was the No. 64 overall pick in the 2021 NFL draft and is being viewed as the long-term heir apparent to Tom Brady in Tampa.

"He fits what we do here, fits our style of offense, he can throw the ball down the field and stand in there," Buccaneers director of player personnel John Spytek said. "He has a chance to come in here and learn from the greatest of all time, Tom Brady, so it makes sense.

"He's got a good arm. He's really accurate—I think you can see that with the two years he played there; he's in the upper sixties in completion percentage. What we really liked was his big jump from his junior year to his senior year, because this is a kid that hadn't played a lot of football."

Despite being 23 years old and exhausting his college eligibility, Trask has limited playing experience. He spent his high school career backing up D'Eriq King before arriving in Gainesville as a relatively unheralded prospect. After serving as a backup his first three seasons, Trask took over for his final two years at Florida and broke out in 2020.

Trask threw for 4,283 yards and 43 touchdowns against eight interceptions on his way to becoming a Heisman finalist.

While he'll begin his NFL career as a backup yet again, there's some reason for optimism that Trask is a solid long-term option in Tampa. He and Brady are both pocket-bound, accurate passers who have good but not great arm strength. Their quick decision-making allows them to avoid big hits in the pocket despite their lack of scrambling ability, and the Bucs clearly see a quarterback whose skill set went undervalued on draft day.

Trask could be the draft's biggest bargain if he's as good as the Buccaneers front office believes.