Baker Mayfield photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Bucs

With the Bucs back together for offseason workouts, new offensive coordinator Dave Canales is getting his first chance to work with his players. On Wednesday, he took the podium at the AdventHealth Training Center and for the first time, opened up on the quarterback competition that will soon unfold between Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask.

For starters, he spoke about the value of making this a true competition between Mayfield and Trask.

“For me, it’s a win-win when you create a competition,” Canales said. “Here’s why: if you name a starter today, the backup guy starts thinking like a backup. But if you say, this is a competition, we’re going to allow us to go into the preseason and let them show us that they can manage to get us into the right play, they can take care of the ball – that’s going to be the determining factor, really, who takes care of the ball. The bonus is who pushes it down the field.

“If we can play great defense, run it, and take care of the ball – we’re going to be a great team. The guy who can show that is going to win the job.”

Dave Canales Is No Stranger To Quarterback Competitions

Bucs OC Dave Canales – Photo by: Matt Matera/PR

Canales went on to discuss being part of last year’s competition in Seattle between Geno Smith and Drew Lock. Smith ultimately won the job and took the Seahawks to the playoffs, earning NFL Comeback Player of the Year honors in the process.

“For me, what I end up getting out of Drew and Geno, is two guys who had to mentally put themselves in a place where I could be, I’m going to be the starter this year,” Canales said. “They trained that way all the way through the last game of the preseason. We’re in Dallas and Drew is playing for his job, Geno is playing for his job – they both know that.

“Game one, I’ve got a starter in Geno and I’ve got a backup who’s been thinking he’s a starter for six months. Whoever won the job was going to be the starter, but the other guy was going to bring so much more value and confidence to our room. That’s been our philosophy and I’d like to take it as far as I can, but of course the head coach, the general manager – we’re going to all have discussions. Like I told [General Manager] Jason [Licht] early on, ‘I will coach the crap out of whoever you give me and whoever we decide to – but I’ll have them both ready.’”

The Bucs’ quarterback competition is a bit different than the one the Seahawks held last year. Smith was a journeyman who hadn’t started in years, while Lock had recent starting experience in a bad situation in Denver. Tampa Bay has Mayfield (who is similarly looking for a career revival like Smith, though at a younger age) and Trask, who has just nine career pass attempts to his name.

Bucs QB Kyle Trask – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Trask’s lack of opportunities in the last two years make it difficult for a direct comparison between the two competitions Canales has seen in the last two years. That’s something he pointed to on Wednesday before speaking more generally about how well the team is set up for a lengthy quarterback competition.

“I think circumstantially, if Kyle [Trask] would have had more opportunities, I would have loved to see what would have happened with those,” he said. “I don’t think we need to rush to make any decisions, is my opinion. Wait as long as you can, as long as possible. Our offense and defense don’t need us to name a starter. Trust me. We’ve got studs up front on the offensive line – veteran presence – we’ve got veteran presence at the wide receiver position, we’ve got a really good group of backs there.

“The defense is fantastic, and the way we’re building it, even with the draft. This is not a team that’s like: we’ve got to know who the starter is going to be so that we can move forward and figure out who we’re going to be. I don’t think so. I think the way we’re going to play it [is] I’ll have both guys ready to be really successful and efficient in what we’re doing.”

What Has Dave Canales Seen From Baker Mayfield And Kyle Trask?

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo courtesy of the Buccaneers

This phase of the offseason has been Dave Canales’ first chance to work with the Bucs’ offense as a whole. That means he’s gotten a chance to work firsthand with the two quarterbacks vying for the starting job. And, unsurprisingly, he’s been satisfied with what he’s seen from both.

“From Baker: what’s cool about him is that he’s got a ton of game experience,” Canales said. “There’s a lot of conversations happening about things that he did or saw or did in games. With Kyle, what’s cool is – talking about being around Tom [Brady] for two years – you see his tempo and control in his drop[back] mimicking a guy that was the greatest of all time. It’s like, okay, he’s got a great starting point. If you were going to play behind somebody, who better than [that]? And that frame, that 6’5” frame.

“And honestly, the guys are both plenty smart enough to handle any of our alerts or our checks, getting us to the right types of plays – I’ve seen that. I’ve also seen two guys where I walk into the room in the mornings and they’re already in there, they’re talking, they’ve got their books out, they’re watching a game. So, they’re already cohesive in that nature. They just kind of are doing really well together.”

The Bucs signed their No. 3 quarterback on Tuesday, agreeing to terms with former Rams signal-caller John Wolford. Canales is happy to stick with three guys in the room, and he’s thrilled to have Wolford on board, who has some familiarity with the system from his time in Los Angeles.

“We just signed John Wolford, too, which is a huge get for me because he walks in and he’s the smartest guy in the room on day one,” Canales said. “He’s really dialed in [and] excited about the opportunity. He just moved to Miami so it couldn’t be a better situation for him and his wife. I’m excited for him to bring that value. He’s played games and he really knows our system – there’s a lot of good carryover from what they did at the Rams to what we were doing the last two years in Seattle.”