Todd Bowles: Leadership Will Be Critical Key To Winning Quarterback Job
March 29th, 2023
Bucs quarterback Kyle Trask.
An advance thank you to head coach Todd Bowles for sitting down with Joe 1-on-1 in Phoenix yesterday as the sun rose prior to the NFC Coaches breakfast.
One might feel sorry for Joe having to operate so early after a late night of too many free drinks and extravagance courtesy of the NFL party at the swanky Biltmore resort, but Joe is a realist and realizes that’s ridiculous. Many fans woud dump their significant others for those types of opportunity.
So one question Joe hurled at Bowles was about the Tampa Bay quarterback competition (allegedly) between green Kyle Trask and the accomplished challenger, Baker Mayfield.
How big of a component will leadership prowess be in the competition? Joe asked.
It matters a lot, Bowles replied.
“Leadership is a big percentage of it but you got to be able to run the offense, as well. Running the offense is very important but leadership is part of it. They go hand and hand,” Bowles said.
Interestingly, Bowles later called Mayfield “a natural born leader.”
Of course, Mayfield led his Browns teams through multiple seasons, including a playoff win and a strong showing in a playoff loss to the Chiefs. Trask was a scout team leader for the Bucs and was a beloved leader during two college seasons in Gainesville.
Joe often pours cold water on the value of leadership, but not at the quarterback position.
It’ll be interesting to see if Trask comes out walking and talking — and playing — like the guy from Day 1 of spring practice.
Joe will have more from Bowles on the quarterback competition later this week.
March 29th, 2023 at 4:34 pm
A slightly positive post about Trask?
Who is this and what have you done with Joe?
March 29th, 2023 at 4:37 pm
No matter what one’s opinion of the two quarterbacks now on the roster and their likelihood of winning the starting job, it’s going to be a fascinating pre season this year. Much moreso than when the GOAT was under center and everybody knew not only that he was the guy but that he would also play a minimum number of snaps in pre-season games. Which made it hard to gage how good the first team offense really would be during the season.
March 29th, 2023 at 4:51 pm
Interested to see who the other two quarterback additions will be. Pretty clear that #2 will be battling to be #4.
March 29th, 2023 at 5:01 pm
With Mayfield experience his chance of starting are probably 70%. Trask will have to clearly bet him out a tie goes to Mayfield. However, Trask should be the number 2 QB and he will have a chance to start if Mayfield fails or get hurt. If Trask is the number 3 QB again this year then the Bucs should admit he was wasted draft pick and cut him.
March 29th, 2023 at 5:20 pm
Performance, execution and leading by example
Devin White and Jameis think that leadership is loudmouthing
March 29th, 2023 at 5:33 pm
LOL Goat at it again
March 29th, 2023 at 5:36 pm
In a FAIR COMPETITION, Kyle Trask will probably hold his own.
He’s a big boy and won’t go quietly in the night.
Personally I’d love to see Trask get the starting nod. He’s a full 3 years younger than Mayfield (25 vs 28), still has 1 year left on his rookie contract after this, and has had 2 full years learning Tom Brady’s ways of doing things (apparently successful ways at that). It’s time to see if he can put all of that into action & lead this team. Bucs have a mountain of needs right now, and to be able to check ‘Find Franchise QB’ off the list would be awesome.
March 29th, 2023 at 5:40 pm
Defense Rules. Stop using logic that upsets people here.
March 29th, 2023 at 5:43 pm
I agree DR
Go to the Bucs YouTube channel about 10 months ago and he was interviewed.
What struck out of me was how low key, reserved, hesitant and uninspiring.
What that means is really nothing but it did strike as odd
March 29th, 2023 at 5:48 pm
Wow! look at that, Trask looks jacked like Will Levis! :0
March 29th, 2023 at 5:58 pm
Someone said Bowles didn’t even talk to the offense last year?
March 29th, 2023 at 6:02 pm
Yep. Trask deserves the starting nod because everyone here that thinks he should start has seen him on the field every day for the last two years just like Bucs coaches and management.
Oh, wait.
March 29th, 2023 at 6:07 pm
JBF has access to inside info more than the rest of the teams. Good Job Joe.
March 29th, 2023 at 6:28 pm
Goat F#@&er is at it still. Not sure what he said, since I stopped reading his garbage long ago, but since the topic is QBs, I know who he is attacking here. Trask is home grown, and has my support as long he’s a Buc.
March 29th, 2023 at 6:36 pm
Trask=3-14
March 29th, 2023 at 7:09 pm
Leadership is playing to win….especially when Tom Brady is your QB. Leadership is canning your incompetent OC. Bowles is a solid DC but he lacks tremendously in leadership as a HC.
March 29th, 2023 at 7:17 pm
Defense Rules/ Sparky. You should definitely take everything Goatman says to the bank. After all, he is personal friends with all the Bucs coaches and has all the inside scoop on all things Trask! Funny how everything Trask accomplished in the SEC means zero, yet we should all get wobbly over kids coming out this year as being saviors? Trask has proved many people wrong for years now- since HS. Wouldn’t it be great if he did it again? Hell if I know if he will but I’m not going dump on him on a daily basis until HE proves to me that he is not a capable QB. I ignore Goatman too. SOS every single day from the learned one who has his personal crystal ball. Let the kid put on his pads and show on the field what he can do. We give that same respect to everyone who makes it on the team. We gave Darden a thousand opportunities. This kid never had chance sitting behind the GOAT. SF never thought that Mr Irrelevant would go on a tear for them, but he did. It’s not unreasonable to give the kid a legitimate chance. If he sucks- he sucks but what if….?
March 29th, 2023 at 7:37 pm
One advantage that Kyle Trask has going into a competition to start at QB is that he’s been around Tom Brady for two years. Baker Mayfield can’t say that. We’ll see soon if he learned anything.
March 29th, 2023 at 7:44 pm
Todd Bowles calls Baker “A natural born leader”. LOL. He is anything but that . In fact that was main reason they kicked his butt out of Cleveland. He will be a negative voice in the locker room as soon as Bucs lose a few games. He only motivate other players when he is the starter to make sure he does not lose not the team. He will not last but a game or two even if he starts due to bad plays or injuries. He lead NFL in qb’s with defense knocking down their passes.
March 29th, 2023 at 7:46 pm
@Defense Rules
Well said. So many reasons for the Bucs (and fans) to WANT Kyle Trask to become the starter and QB of the future.
Mayfield has had plenty of struggles in the NFL. In my opinion, him suddenly ‘turning it on’ and becoming a consistent, high-performing NFL QB seems very, very unlikely at this point in his career.
Trask could also fail to have success in the NFL. BUT… at least give the guy a chance to see what he can do. He has far more apparent UPSIDE than Mayfield at this point, and as you mentioned he’s younger and will cost much less over the next seasons.
Anyone that doesn’t want to see Trask succeed doesn’t want what is best for the team.
March 29th, 2023 at 8:09 pm
Bowels shouldn’t be allowed to utter the word Leadership, he has no clue
March 29th, 2023 at 8:28 pm
Vancouver Buc … It must be wonderful to know as much about leadership as you obviously do to criticize Todd Bowles for having ‘no clue’. From what I can see, he’s been an NFL DC for 6 years. In his 2 years with the BA & the Cardinals, his defense ranked #7 in 2013 (allowing 324 points) and ranked #5 in 2014 (allowing 299 points). In his first 3 years with BA & the Bucs, his defense ranked #29 in 2019 (allowing 449 points), but improved rapidly once all the rookies got ‘trained up’ to rank #8 in 2020 (allowing 355 points … and oh ya, win the Super Bowl), then did even better to rank #5 in 2021 (allowing 353 points in 1 more game).
Last year, with him being DC & HC, the defense slid a little bit to rank #13 (allowing 358 points in the 17 games). Of course, dropping 8 places in the rankings yet only giving up 5 more points in the same 17 games should probably tell us that the other NFL teams ranking above us improved considerably. But we won’t go there.
It boggles my mind to think how good Todd Bowles could’ve been if only he’d taken leadership lessons from you. Maybe then he’d have a clue huh?
March 29th, 2023 at 8:29 pm
Accomplished lol oh ok!
March 29th, 2023 at 9:10 pm
Bowels leads his teams to losing records better than any other head coach. Soon to be five seasons in a row.
March 29th, 2023 at 9:15 pm
May the best man win. But I don’t believe for a minute Baker would have been targeted, if Trask had any chance of winning the QB1 role.
You don’t target an ultra-alpha personality to challenge a beta…You target that guy because you have a beta.
If the FO truly believed Trask was the answer, they’d brought in a waning days mentor type guy that knew he was there to help mold the young Buc. Not Baker.
March 29th, 2023 at 9:27 pm
Kyle Trash, natural born bench warmer but no worries he will get “his shot” down the road when Baker blows for the nth time.
March 29th, 2023 at 9:45 pm
Mayfield sucks, tried to kill his receivers in Cleveland and was ok during his playoff run do y’all forget he couldn’t beat a Mahomes less? Things have gone downhill ever since now Barker is painted as this great QB 🤦🏽♂️.
March 29th, 2023 at 10:07 pm
Let’s Go Kyle!…Take this job
Keep Baker’s little sawed-off behind on the bench as an insurance policy…
Either way/assuming there’s a legit QB competition; if Kyle can’t beat of Baker then Licht officially whiffed again in the second round….
March 29th, 2023 at 10:33 pm
That does not sound well for any of the Bucs QB”s this year.
March 30th, 2023 at 12:31 am
I really don’t get all the hate for trask. Must have pissed in goat farmers cheerios again. Idk why he just keeps eating it
March 30th, 2023 at 12:49 am
May the quickest release and most accurate reading and throwing qb win the job. Unfortunately for every Tom Brady there’s 10,000 Barry gilmores. No offense to Barry btw.
March 30th, 2023 at 1:01 am
Things may change based on the draft. I think a QB in the first round, Not AR15, is in play if someone falls out of the top 10.
March 30th, 2023 at 1:17 am
I’d like to see Trask win out, but, from what little I’ve seen, I have my doubts. That said, the kid deserved a chance to win the job in preseason. There’s going to be at least two more added before camp. Maybe we get the next late round Brady or Purdy.
BTW Goatfarmer is kinda fun to read.
March 30th, 2023 at 4:47 am
Let’s see …Given a choice between a “leader” and a playmaker I”ll take the playmaker every time folks. Because playmakers make plays! They dont just talk about making plays!
March 31st, 2023 at 5:21 pm
Needless qb competition show off by Todd B. Every one knows who Todd B. wants to be the starting qb just like Baker vs. Sam D. back with Panthers. The Decision was already made when they hired Baker. He is no leader and has no mentor skills to help the rookie Trask. He is only there to start for Tod B. Otherwise Bucs would have brought a veteran back up like Case Keenum to hrlp Trask or a young qb like Drew L.
This is a shame on Bucs and Todd B. when they never gave the rookie second rounder even a chance to be a back up for two years with BS excuses as they needed an experience qb to back up Tom B. As Gabbert would have taken them to Super Bowl had Tom B. had been injured. LOL. This is a bad organization to play for especially if you are a qb drafted right out of college.