When new Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Kyle Trask faced the question of what he wants to “get out of” superstar quarterback Tom Brady, the rookie said he won’t take a utilitarian approach but learn as much as he can from him.
“I mean I’m not like sitting here kind of like setting expectations on what I want to get out of somebody,” Trask said in Friday’s press conference. “It’s definitely just a privilege to be in the same (quarterback) room as someone who’s been that successful in the NFL, and I’ll try to pick up as many tips as you can that I think that can definitely help my game down the road and help everybody’s game just the fact that he’s in the building. He’s just been around so many successful teams.”
Trask spoke highly of the Bucs’ team culture on NFL Network the week before when he talked about how Brady and other Bucs veterans welcomed him to Tampa. On the first day of the Bucs’ rookie minicamp, Trask emphasized the importance of team chemistry, even in a short-term setting.
“It’s extremely important to get to know the other guys coming in because you know who knows how long you’re going to be playing together,” Trask said. “It could be for a very long time but either way, you want to have those relationships with the guys around you. I think so far, we just have a great group of guys coming in and are ready to work and do whatever they got to do to help the team.”
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Flying Solo
As the only quarterback in camp, Trask ran every offensive play, getting the ball fourth-round pick Jaelon Darden and undrafted free agent T.J. Simmons among others. Bucs head coach Bruce Arians saw some positives in the first-year quarterback’s execution.
“There was some really good disguised coverages he saw the first day of his career, so I was really impressed,” Arians said per WTSP’s Grace Remington, who shared a video of Trask’s first practice.
It didn’t hurt that Trask came from a similar college offense.
“I definitely noticed some resemblance of this offense to the offense I ran at Florida, and there’s some concepts that are pretty much the same but different verbiage for it,” Trask said. “I’m studying like crazy, so I’ve been picking plays up at a good pace so far. I’ve only had a small portion of the playbook obviously because we’ve only been able to study it for a couple weeks.”
He added that he wants to keep showing the best footwork possible as he emphasized in his pro day.
“It’s something I’m still carrying with me right now to show that I can have that athleticism within the pocket and still throw an accurate ball from whatever position I’m in,” Trask said.
Trask: “You’ve Got to Compete”
Trask wouldn’t get into goals in terms of where he sees himself on the depth chart behind Brady. The Bucs re-signed backups Blaine Gabbert and Ryan Griffin in the past two months.
“For me, I’m just trying to come in with an open mind and work as hard as I possibly can and do whatever I need to do to help the team win,” Trask said.
Trask rose to the top of the depth chart in both high school and college on his way to the NFL. He said it has taught him “a lot of lessons” to this day.
“When you’re a backup for however many years that was, you learn that you’ve gotta compete every single day,” Trask said. “There’s no days off. Your goal at the end of the day is to step on that field one day. You’ve got to compete every single day.”
His approach doesn’t change if he gets to start, he said.
“Because it’s one thing to finally be able to be the starter, but it’s another thing to stay there and get to where you can take that next level,” Trask said. “I think that’s something that definitely helped me get to this point and something that I’m going to take with me is that no matter what day it is, no matter what depth I am on the roster or whatever, I’m going to compete every day and try to get a little bit better with every opportunity that I can.”
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Bucs Rookie QB Says He Won’t ‘Use’ Tom Brady