So Baker Mayfield is your starting Bucs quarterback. The announcement revolted so many outside the Tampa Bay area. And among a number of Bucs fans, it triggered bouts of depression.
So when did Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales realize Mayfield was his guy? It likely came when Mayfield gave Canales “goosebumps.”
In the week leading up to the first worthless preseason game, Canales admitted yesterday Trask may have been winning the race for the starting quarterback gig.
No question, Trask had some better practices, Canales said.
After the first worthless preseason game, Mayfield began to demonstrate he had a stronger grasp of the offense.
Then came a moment in the Glazer Shed where Canales said Mayfield had an epiphany and as a result, Canales got those goosebumps.
“Really leading up to that first preseason game, that’s where it was kind of neck and neck,” Canales said of the Mayfield-Trask competition.
“Baker had a couple of days that were not great and those days Kyle [Trask] really excelled, so then the disparity was a little bigger like, ‘Oh shoot, Kyle clearly won these two or three days here.’
“Coming out of the first preseason game – and obviously not playing the starters – [with] Baker being able to get out there, command the offense, talk to the group, be in the huddle and all of that.
Then we had an indoor practice one of the days after that and he launched a 67-yard post route on the money to Mike [Evans] and it was like… Here is the coverage.
I could see his wheels turning, he looked, he saw Mike, everything was perfect.
“He threw the ball way down the field on the money and Mike walked in. It was just like goosebumps. ‘Woah, that was cool.’ Then he kind of built and fed off of that.”
So there you have it. It appears Mayfield got a rise from the folks who counted.
Joe still maintains that for Trask to have won the job, he would have had to play and practice head and shoulders better than Mayfield because Todd Bowles needs wins and prefers experience.
Trask didn’t do that.