By now we have all seen it. The dying quail. The lame duck. Or as I have deemed it, “The Wobbly Wonder.” Over the weekend the Bucs social media team put out a clip from practice of a pass from quarterback Kyle Trask intended for receiver Jaelon Darden.

Darden bobbled the ball and cornerback Jamel Dean was able to make a good tip-drill play to intercept the ball. The social team put it out to highlight what has been a fantastic training camp thus far for the Bucs secondary.

It didn’t get received that way. Trask’s pass was less than ideal to say the most. It came out of his hand awkward and slow. And Bucs fans the world over had takes upon takes upon takes. Overreaction season is here y’all.

Let’s get a couple of things cleared up really quickly.

First, it was a bad pass. Second, it won’t be his last. Third, he isn’t the only quarterback to have ever thrown a bad pass like that. Fourth, he may be the only one that’s own social media team decided it would be a good idea to send a video of it to millions of people. Fifth, this pass in no way indicates who he will be as an NFL player or what his career will look like.

Now that we have ALL of that out of the way, let’s have a real discussion about Trask. It’s a topic that is now front-of-mind for many Bucs fans. This is evidenced by it being the leadoff question in Pewter Report’s Bucs Monday Mailbag.

How Can Trask Show Progress?

Bucs QB Kyle Trask – Photo by: USA Today

In my mind, Trask should be eying two goals this preseason. First and foremost, he needs to win the QB2 job from Blaine Gabbert. Gabbert at this point is a known quantity. He is a capable backup with the requisite skills to step in and operate offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich’s offense well enough in a pinch to keep the ship on course.

He is not the quarterback of the future. And he is not Tom Brady’s heir apparent. But he is a useful piece on this team. And he has a limited ceiling. If Trask cannot supplant that limited ceiling after being drafted in the second-round with a year in the system … Tampa, we have a problem.

The second goal is obviously for Trask to give Leftwich and head coach Todd Bowles enough confidence in his progress to see him as a viable option as the post-Brady starter. Both of those goals can be accomplished with his performance in the Bucs three preseason games.

Last year, Trask had a poor-to-average preseason showing. He completed 29 of his 55 attempts for a 52.7% completion percentage. He threw for 312 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions while getting sacked five times. But the progress won’t come from just better counting stats.

Look For Qualitative Over Quantitative Play

Look, Trask will need to show a command for the offense. That will entail having a good grasp of the offense and being able to work quickly through his reads. He will need to be able to process defensive looks and make the right decision on how to throw option routes. Trask’s ball placement will need to show a step forward and he will need to be able to throw receivers open. And yes, he will need to throw strong, tight spirals.

But most importantly, Trask needs to show that he is the best player on the field. By a mile. He won’t get many in-game reps with the first-team. And he probably won’t play against the one’s for the opponents either. If Trask is to prove he should be the guy to step on the field this year if Brady goes down, he needs to show he is significantly better than backups.

If he doesn’t, then for this year all he has proven is he is a less experienced Gabbert. But more importantly, Trask needs to show he is considerably better than backups to show he can be a starter in this league. Especially a starter for a team that should still have a strong core of talent in a post-Brady world.

For Trask this is an extremely important preseason. In four weeks’ time his play will tell us a lot about who he is for this season and who can be in the future.

But let’s not write him off because of one questionable social media post.