Buccaneers quarterback Kyle Trask showed poise, readiness in first NFL action

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers drafted Florida quarterback Kyle Trask in the second round of this year’s draft. There was a lot of talk about how he’d be Tom Brady’s successor. But there’s still a decent road ahead for that to happen.

Saturday night’s preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals was the first step in Trask’s NFL journey, and it was a performance his head coach was pleased with.

“I thought Kyle [Trask] played well,” head coach Bruce Arians said after the game. “I thought Kyle went in there and made some throws that guys needed to make plays for him. I like his poise and where he’s at.”

Trask’s stat line doesn’t tell the whole story. The young signal caller finished 4-for-15 for 35 yards. There were deep shots taken by design where his receivers didn’t do him many favors at times, as Arians stated. But those things will iron themselves out with time.

Fortunately, despite the lack of connections down the field, Trask was prepared for his first action as a professional.

“I would say our practice prepared me for [the speed of an NFL game],” Trask said. “It wasn’t anything that caught me off guard once I got out there. We like to practice at a good pace so we’re very prepared for these situations. I don’t feel like I was ever caught off guard in the moment.”

Part of Trask’s development is leaning on the veteran quarterbacks on the roster, and that was on display on Saturday night in between series.

“They were telling me to stay with it. Like I said before, some things weren’t going our way. But they just told me to stay with it and that I was doing a good job. Like I said, we’re just going to go back and watch the film and get everything cleaned up that we need to.”

And Trask will also have time to clean things up throughout the rest of the preseason.