Todd Bowles: It’s Not About The Big Play, It’s About The Right Play
June 3rd, 2023
What does Todd Bowles look for in the QB competition?
Despite what Pacman Jones may realize, analyzing quarterbacks and determining who will start takes a bit more research than watching one bad pass of an underwear football practice facing no defense — in May!
This week, Bucs coach Todd Bowles admitted a coach can only get so much from watching quarterbacks in practice because they don’t get touched. Only when the real bullets fly, Bowles said, can a coach determine quarterback performance.
Then Bowles sort of opened a window into what the Bucs offense may look like this year under Bowles’ hand-picked offensive coordinator Dave Canales.
In the three years Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians ran things, and to a much lesser extent when SpongeBob called the offense last year, the big play was a big part of the offense and perhaps its main element.
You know, no-risk-it; no-biscuit?
Now? Bowles said the big play may not be the right play and he’s looking for a quarterback who makes more right plays than his rival teammate.
“From an analyzing standpoint, again it’s the grasp of the offense, it’s the reading of the defense,” Bowles said. “It’s not necessarily making the big play but the right play.
“Then it comes down to moxie, it comes down to intelligence – in-game intelligence and adjustments and fits and film work. You can see who the team galvanizes around and who’s ready to play the first game and you make a decision from there.
“It’s constant analyzation, whether it’s small or whether it’s big – it’s constant analysis from now up until we name a starter.”
The way Bowles spoke it sure sounded to Joe like the Baker Mayfield vs. competing Kyle Trask bout may not see its final round until the third worthless preseason game is played.
Joe cannot think of too many times a team had a winning record when it didn’t know its starting quarterback at the close of August. Can the Bucs be the exception?
June 3rd, 2023 at 12:22 am
Hopefully yes. I wouldn’t name a starter until the end of preseason. Why not give them a competition until the season begins. It will just make both QB’s better and more accepting of the final outcome. Metal sharpens metal
June 3rd, 2023 at 1:41 am
Usually, a team that knows its starting QB has an established starter. We don’t. Is Joe suggesting naming a guy now, before we know who will do a better job, is a reasonable idea? It ain’t.
The logic knowing your starter doesn’t apply because we clearly do not have a franchise QB, so we’re just not going to be able to name a starter without a full fledged competition. I’m also more open to that guy being Trask. Hearing good things. We’ll see. I’m also not of the mind that a QB competition that plays itself out into August means we’ll be a crappy team.
June 3rd, 2023 at 2:21 am
Yanno…bowels says with one side of his mouth that there is a legitimate competition…then he shines Baker’s knob with the other side. Baker is going to start.
June 3rd, 2023 at 3:45 am
You know, the right play – like punting on 4th and 3 from your opponents 40 down by less than one score
That’s Toad’s idea of the right play
Six wins max
June 3rd, 2023 at 4:03 am
Up the gut.
June 3rd, 2023 at 4:14 am
No Todd it’s about both!
Get your head out of your ass!
June 3rd, 2023 at 5:42 am
I’ve watched plenty of teams win in this league in spite of thier QB . The problem is , I have not seen to many win in spite of the QB and coach! Oh and Joe’s , I am a bucs fan that has been stuck in akron ohio . Since 2010 , I have seen a lot of baker Mayfield game & let me tell you this , this practice video are the norm for him . He may have a good game or 2 during the season but he is not consistent! When he needs 2 throw high and outside its low and inside and vise versa . The only hope is we ride a strong run game and defence and our new OC constantly puts us in position to win the damn thing
June 3rd, 2023 at 6:10 am
Genius
June 3rd, 2023 at 6:48 am
Moxie? Does Bowles live in a 1940s gangster movie?
June 3rd, 2023 at 7:01 am
I’m sorry but I have zero faith in Todd Bowles’ grasp of the Offense…..he needs to butt out!!!
June 3rd, 2023 at 7:36 am
Todd Bowles should just have someone else speak for him. The more he talks the more he sounds like a guy who has no business being in charge.
June 3rd, 2023 at 7:48 am
TIL Big play ≠ right play.
Check down Charlie errr Mike Glennon, where you at?
June 3rd, 2023 at 7:49 am
#99
You do realize what you said is frowned upon for very obvious reasons, right?
Doesn’t matter if it just happens to be the truth.
June 3rd, 2023 at 7:50 am
‘Joe cannot think of too many times a team had a winning record when it didn’t know its starting quarterback at the close of August.’
And how many times Joe did any team that you know of go into Free agency & the draft with just ONE unproven QB who’s for all practical purposes a rookie? Bucs only started this 2023 season with unproven Kyle Trask … he was it. Reality is that we signed Baker Mayfield NOT because we wouldn’t have preferred to have signed someone better, but because he was all we could afford. It is what ti is, and we are where we are.
Todd Bowles has stated several times now that we may not know who wins the starting QB until the end of preseason. EVERY position should be treated the same way IMO. Legitimate competition really is a healthy thing.
June 3rd, 2023 at 8:59 am
Chasing the right play is always a better goal than chasing the big play. As a question of mindset and motivation, I agree with that. But there’s never a scenario where a big play is the wrong play. He completely lost me there.
June 3rd, 2023 at 9:12 am
“It’s not necessarily making the big play but the right play.”
That sounds to me like Trask. Mayfield’s career has been dumb plays with interspersed big plays that play to the media and fans.
June 3rd, 2023 at 9:20 am
You’d want your QB always assessing risk and reward when making decisions while assuring them that the smartest decision is always the best decision. Don’t be a hero on 2nd & 5, you may not have to take the 20 yard shot down field, but shooting for an 8-9 yard gainer can move the chains just the same. We’ve got to see this new look offense crawl, bust it’s a**, adjust, then get back up to try it all over again before expecting to see it run off to the races.
June 3rd, 2023 at 9:21 am
William Wsll – there is ALWAYS a scenario where the big play is the wrong play, because you are ignoring the “no risk it” part of the Arians formula. All big plays are high risk plays – that is their nature. There are appropriate game situations where the risk it part balanced the biscuit reward … and circumstances where it does not.
Have you already forgotten the miserable bad old days of the Jamies Winston debacle? Winston and his playcallers produced the league’s highest turnover rate over the five seasons of Winston misery and no playoff runs. The worst season was the last – and the first under Arians.
You can’t pretend there is no risk to big plays, especially when you don’t have the GOAT under center and we have the horrible O line we had last season. It doesn’t work.
You go to war with the army you have, not the army you wish you had. Applies equally to football.
June 3rd, 2023 at 9:24 am
Defense Rules Says: “And how many times Joe did any team that you know of go into free agency & the draft with just ONE unproven QB who’s for all practical purposes a rookie?”
Well stated. I would add -> And, added an undersized unproven veteran QB who has played for 3 teams in his 6 years, is now on his 4th team, and had a 24.5 QBR each of his last 2 seasons, the absolute worst in the NFL. Is that unproven veteran supposed to be gifted the starting job over the unproven multi-year “rookie”? That veteran’s mom might think so, but I don’t. Hell, true rookies are named starters all the time; much more so multi-year “rookies”.
June 3rd, 2023 at 10:12 am
Barring injury, Mayfield will be the starter- doesn’t mean Trask is irrelevant or unimportant.
June 3rd, 2023 at 10:33 am
Bin saying this since they brought baker in. It’s bakers job to lose. Bowels needs wins and he thinks he serves a better chance at getting the dub with baker vs trask
June 3rd, 2023 at 10:35 am
Imagine trying to rationalize against the big play because you want to start a QB who averages less than. 200 pass ypg
June 3rd, 2023 at 10:39 am
“Joe cannot think of too many times a team had a winning record when it didn’t know its starting quarterback at the close of August.”
Just last year, the Seattle Seahawks named Geno Smith the starting QB after the last preseason game.
Hmmm … I wonder why that might be significant …
June 3rd, 2023 at 11:03 am
Good one ScottyMack!!
June 3rd, 2023 at 11:22 am
LOL, yeah, Bowles knows all about the right play, like the time against the Rams he called for an all out Blitz , despite the fact that Matt Stafford had been beating our Blitz all day!
This stupid call left Cooper Kupp wide open, and cost us a return to the Super Bowl!
June 3rd, 2023 at 11:37 am
Go Trask beat Baker!
Whoever ran off Goatfarmer…shame on you.
June 3rd, 2023 at 11:40 am
Other than being buddies, how/ why was Bowles, Ariens’ hand picked predecessor?
June 3rd, 2023 at 11:41 am
Comments just disappear now on JBF…poof they don’t even post.
June 3rd, 2023 at 11:42 am
ScottyMack is correct. This will be QB friendly and either guy could shine in it. Seattle had a has-been and never-was last year and it sort of worked out
June 3rd, 2023 at 12:19 pm
Constant Analyzation sounds like a diagnosis. I’m sorry coach, you have constant analyzation.
June 3rd, 2023 at 12:33 pm
HC/DC strikes again.
June 3rd, 2023 at 1:59 pm
“The way Bowles spoke it sure sounded to Joe like the Baker Mayfield vs. competing Kyle Trask bout may not see its final round until…” – Joe
Let’s be honest here…it was over the moment Mayfield was signed. There is no real competition.
But at least Trask is finally getting real work in.
As to the Bowles comments…at first I was like ‘this is the most boring coach ever,’ but upon thinking about it, in this instance he is right.
Focus on the basics, then expand later…not that bowles will expand much.
Of course, if the other teams know we are focused on the basics…maybe it will surprise them on unexpected big plays?
June 3rd, 2023 at 2:00 pm
Personally, I’m hoping when Trask gets his shot, he has it in him to just take control and never look back again. If he learned anything from Brady, that would hopefully be one of the things.
June 3rd, 2023 at 2:03 pm
BucsBeBack (Artist formally known as: BringBucsBack) Says
“Other than being buddies, how/ why was Bowles, Ariens’ hand picked predecessor?”
I personally believe (no proof) that in order to get Bowles here as DC, Arians and Licht had to promise him the role when Arians retired.
Giving his a second year? No idea. Maybe because of the cap issues coming up they figured why hamper a new guy?
June 3rd, 2023 at 2:09 pm
Defense Rules Says
“Reality is that we signed Baker Mayfield NOT because we wouldn’t have preferred to have signed someone better, but because he was all we could afford. It is what ti is, and we are where we are.”
/signed.
And really…we got off easy. Look how long it took Bruce Allen to get out of cap issues when McKay left. Of course, he got us right back into cap issues…but Dominic got us out again (really, he wasn’t good for much else).
I’m praising God that Licht dealt with the cap issues in one year.
June 3rd, 2023 at 2:10 pm
Although, I do expect there to be some surprise cuts still…or restructures. And I think next year we’ll loose a couple vets if we draft a rookie QB.
I’ll be happy if the offensive line is fixed by the end of this season. Or one player away from it.
June 3rd, 2023 at 2:19 pm
Bowles likes Mayfield cause he can runaround better.
June 3rd, 2023 at 2:28 pm
This guy doesn’t have a clue what it’s about. Very uninspiring. Sad that we are being force fed this garbage.
June 3rd, 2023 at 3:48 pm
Please feel free to list any team that at the end of July didn’t know who their quarterback was and did damage in the playoffs? Joe can only think of Russell Wilson and the Seahawks.
As far as a team not knowing its quarterback entering free agency that did something? Joe only has to go back three years. Some guy named Tom Brady came to the Bucs.
Simply put, “If you have two quarterbacks you have none.” Arguring otherwise is a worthless endeavor.
June 4th, 2023 at 7:48 am
Cutting down on big plays is Job One!