The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have gone against type this offseason in terms of player moves.
For example; they desperately needed help on the defensive side of the ball but drafted a wide receiver in the first round. They needed to bring in help for veteran Lavonte David at inside linebacker but did nothing.
At backup quarterback, the Buccaneers brought back longtime backup Kyle Trask on a 1-year, $2.78 million contract to continue to play behind 2-time Pro Bowler Baker Mayfield. It was a move that didn’t really seem like it was contemplated too much, or other options were explored.
It’s not too late to try and fix some of those oversights — we can’t call them mistakes yet — which might start with signing another legitimate backup quarterback in free agent Tyler Huntley.
Huntley also has something very important on his resume that Trask does not, which is NFL starts. Quite of few of them, actually, with a 5-9 record over 14 starts as a backup for the Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins over the last 5 seasons.
Huntley even earned a Pro Bowl nod in 2022 filling in for 2-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson on the Ravens.
“As a member of the Baltimore Ravens, Tyler Huntley was never going to dethrone Lamar Jackson,” Bleacher Report’s Brent Sobleski wrote on July 3. “He didn’t receive a fair shot with the Cleveland Browns because their investment in Deshaun Watson crippled their decision-making process. He joined the Miami Dolphins as QB3 last season before being thrust into the lineup. The team finished 2-3 with Huntley as the starter … Huntley provides better dual-threat capabilities that can become part of the designed run game. If a starting quarterback suffers a short-term injury, he can keep the ship afloat.”
Huntley Underrated, Undervalued From the Jump
Getting Huntley on the Buccaneers would be a homecoming of sorts — he starred at Hallandale High School in Hallandale Beach, Florida, before going on to become a 3-year starter for the University of Utah.
Huntley earned All-Pac-12 honors in his final college season in 2019, when he threw for 3,092 yards, 19 touchdowns and 4 interceptions in 14 games to go with 290 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns as the Utes earned a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game.
Huntley went undrafted in 2020 and spent 4 seasons as a backup for the Ravens and for Jackson, stepping in to go 2-2 as the starter in 2022 and somehow making the Pro Bowl — one of the more derided Pro Bowl picks in recent memory.
Through 14 NFL starts, Huntley has 2,786 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions to go with 644 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns.
Putting Faith in Trask Probably Not Smartest Move
The weird thing about the Buccaneers putting so much faith in Trask to take over if Mayfield were to get hurt is they don’t really know what they have in him because in 4 seasons, the second round pick from the 2021 draft has seen zero significant game action.
To that end, the Buccaneers thought so little of Trask that when they had the chance to at least let him compete to be the starting quarterback before the 2023 season they instead chose to go out and sign a down-on-his-luck Mayfield to a 1-year, $3 million “prove it contract” and kept Trask in his backup role.
