No team in the NFL has grabbed headlines for its quarterback moves this season more than the Carolina Panthers, who decided to bench 2023 No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young after 2 games and go with veteran Andy Dalton.
The decision by head coach and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dave Canales paid off immediately, as Dalton led the Panthers to a 36-22 win over the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 3 for their first win of the season.
Dalton, a 14-year veteran, was magic in the victory and became the first NFL quarterback to throw for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns this season.
Bleacher Report’s Matt Holder proposed a trade for the Panthers that would reunite Canales with one of his former players by trading for Buccaneers’ backup quarterback Kyle Trask.
That move presumes the Panthers make a move to ship Young elsewhere — which could be on the table sooner than later as the more Young sits, the more his value will fluctuate.
“It’s hard to imagine a world where the Panthers can go back to Young as the starter, and the team will need a confident backup in case something happens to Andy Dalton,” Holder wrote. “Trask played for Dave Canales last year and was battling for the starting job in Tampa Bay with Baker Mayfield, so Trask should know the offense well. Also, who knows, maybe he can be the organization’s quarterback of the future.”
If the Buccaneers could get value out of Trask equivalent to a 3rd-round pick or 4th-round pick it would probably be a win for the 3-time defending NFC South Division champions.
Before the season, Bleacher Report’s Maurice Moton ranked Trask 30th out of all 32 backups, ahead of only Clayton Tune of the Arizona Cardinals and Stetson Bennett of the Los Angeles Rams.
“Most of the quarterbacks in the lowest tier have had rough career starts with poor performances,” Moton wrote in his August 29 story, pointing out that Trask has “minimal regular season experience.”
The last time the franchise had the opportunity for Trask to step into a starting role, they moved quickly to sign Mayfield to a 1-year, $4 million contract before the 2023 season and easily beat out Trask for the starting spot.
Mayfield made his first Pro Bowl in 2023 and signed a 3-year, $100 million contract in March 2024.
Buccaneers Spent Early-Round Pick on TraskTrask has played in only three games with zero starts, zero touchdowns and zero interceptions on 3-of-10 passing for 33 yards. He’s now in the final year of the 4-year, $5.8 million rookie contract he signed in 2021.
Tampa Bay selected him in the second round of the 2021 NFL draft and he backed up Tom Brady for two seasons, then Mayfield in 2023 and to start 2024.
If the Buccaneers did pull the trigger on a Trask trade, it would likely elevate practice squad quarterback Michael Pratt to QB2 behind Mayfield. Pratt was the AAC Offensive Player of the Year at Tulane in 2023 and was drafted in the 7th round of the 2024 NFL draft by the Green Bay Packers. The Buccaneers signed Pratt on Aug. 29 after he was released by Green Bay.
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