3x All-Pro Makes Telling Comments About Bucs QB

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Kyle Trask could really pan out according a former teammate of Tom Brady.

One player who played with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady has come out to bat for Kyle Trask as the starter in 2023.

Three-time All-Por safety Devin McCourty, a former teammate of Brady’s in New England, believes the Bucs will get it right with Trask. McCourty based it on Bucs senior advisor and former head coach Bruce Arians‘ recent comments. Arians told Rich Eisen on the “The Rich Eisen Show” that the Bucs are “in good hands” with Trask, whom Arians drafted with a second-round pick in 2021.

“Bruce Arians has coached Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady, Andrew Luck, [and] Carson Palmer,” McCourty said on “Good Morning Football” on Monday, February 27. “I mean, if he says Trask is the guy, Trask is the guy.”

McCourty got challenged regarding the Arians take by his twin brother, NFL Network analyst and retired cornerback Jason McCourty. The analyst reiterated that Trask remains the only Bucs quarterback under contract.

“It would probably be smart to choose the guy you have on the roster. Blaine Gabbert is a free agent,” Jason McCourty said. “Blaine Gabbert is the guy who has been above Kyle Trask on the depth chart. If he was your guy that much that you believe in him, wouldn’t he be above Blaine Gabbert knowing that Brady was going to, at some point, retire.”

“Nine career passes [for Trask]. I don’t know if that’s the case that I’m going in all hands on deck say, ‘yeah, I’m believing in Kyle Trask to lead our team to where?'” McCourty added.

Canales Could Be the Difference for Trask

Devin McCourty slipped in one last word with a nod to new Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales. Previously the Seattle Seahawks quarterbacks coach, Canales helped the team surprise the league with quarterback Geno Smith after the Russell Wilson trade in 2022.

“Yeah, they said Geno Smith couldn’t do it either. Look at the season he had,” Devin McCourty said. “I’m just saying.”

“Good Morning Football” hosts Peter Schrager and Jamie Erdahl called Devin McCourty’s take better in the brothers’ “In it to Twin it” competition on the show. Schrager acknowledged Arians’ success with quarterbacks as the reason, but Erdahl noted that Trask’s lack of reps is a concern.

Enter Canales, who has a vision for utilizing Trask’s abilities. Canales wants Trask to be the “point guard” of the offense.

“I would say, really right now, the system is the system. It handles any real type of quarterback,” Canales told reporters on February 22. “So, it’s not so much that we’re going to build it through Kyle, it’s just that as I get to know him and study him, the things we’ll do will be in his wheelhouse.  And it’s going to be about our tight ends, it’s going to be about our backs. It’s going to be about Mike [Evans] and Chris [Godwin], Russell [Gage]. It’s really the whole thing.”

Trask’s Time?

Trask didn’t stand out in college and high school until his time came. The Bucs hope for the same story, Pewter Report’s Bailey Adams writes.

“The soon-to-be 25-year-old had to wait his turn at Florida, and the result was spectacular for him and the Gators,” Adams wrote. “Can the same story unfold for the Bucs? After two years of development, will Trask take hold of his opportunity and not look back?”

Adams recapped what scouts and the Bucs saw in Trask before he got drafted. Trask shined for the Gators in 2019 when he took over for the injured Feleipe Franks, and Trask became a Heisman Trophy finalist in 2020.

“Overall, the agreement on Trask was that he was a skilled passer who thrived when he had good protection and talent around him,” Adams wrote. “But there was —and still is — an acknowledgement that the 6-foot-5 signal-caller has plenty of limitations.”