Buccaneers HC Todd Bowles: Winning QB Job Not About 'Making The Big Play'
Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask are now weeks into their battle to be the starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and after Tuesday's OTA practice head coach Todd Bowles took time to clarify some of the evaluation criteria.
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"It's a little different because you don't hit the quarterbacks in OTAs," Bowles said about the battle parameters. "So you really don't know who is what under pressure. From an analyzing standpoint, again it's the grasp of the offense, it's reading the defense - it's not necessarily making the big play but the right play."
But that's just the tip of the winning iceberg, Bowles says.
After proving he can make the right read and the right play, Mayfield or Trask is going to have to show moxie, intelligence - in-game intelligence, adjustments, fits, and film work.
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However, there's one more item that may truly tilt the scales one way or the other, and that's who the locker room responds to the most.
"You can see who the team galvanizes around and who's ready to play the first game and you make the decision from there," Bowles says. "It's constant analyzation, whether it's small or whether it's big - it's constant analysis from now up until we name a starter."
For the sake of the Buccaneers' chances at winning the NFC South Division for a third-straight season, here's hoping all that evaluation and analysis doesn't lead to a back-and-forth of week-to-week starting quarterbacks.
Doing so would only prevent either winner from getting into a comfortable rhythm, and that can't be good for anyone.
Find David Harrison on Twitter @DHarrison82
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