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Baker Mayfield is building an intangible edge over Kyle Trask as the two go head-to-head for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ starting quarterback job, according to ESPN’s Jeff Darlington.
Darlington reported Sunday on SportsCenter the Bucs seem to be leaning toward Mayfield and that the difference between he and Trask is more intrinsic:
“In general, we’re hearing the words that have been used to describe Baker Mayfield since the start of his career. The positive ones, like moxie and leadership. And those are the things so far in Tampa it feels like could earn him the starting job. There is just definitely a little bit more of a vibe when I talk to people about these two quarterbacks, that Baker seems to be imposing himself. Now, Kyle Trask is still in the hunt. There is no determination on who the starter will be in this quarterback competition. But at this point, it does feel that Baker is imposing himself over the competition.”
Maybe Mayfield enjoys a career renaissance in 2023. For now, it wouldn’t reflect positively on Trask in the eyes of many fans if he fails to decisively win the quarterback battle.
Mayfield has the obvious experience edge, but that doesn’t count for too much when his first five seasons have been so lackluster. The 28-year-old looks to be on a backup/low-end starter trajectory at this point.
You’d expect Trask to be asserting his QB1 status by now if he were good enough for the role. That this is reportedly “more of a vibe” thing might be even more concerning as well.
A quarterback is supposed to inspire confidence from his teammates and coaches, and Trask doesn’t appear to be doing that.
Perhaps training camp will help to clarify which of the two has the tighter grip on the starting job.
