The year after winning their second Super Bowl, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers spent their second-round pick in the 2021 NFL draft on Florida quarterback Kyle Trask, hoping to make a future investment into a potential successor for Tom Brady.
Three years later, Trask has yet to play a single meaningful snap for the Bucs, and now heads into the final year of his rookie contract backing up Tampa Bay’s clear-cut starter in Baker Mayfield.
Even so, Bucs general manager Jason Licht doesn’t regret the pick.
Licht recently discussed the topic with Pewter Report, making it clear he won’t apologize for investing premium resources into game’s most important position, regardless of the results.
“You know you guys know me by now,” Licht said. “I will tell you where I made a mistake and I will admit it and say, ‘You know I’ve learned from that.’ I’m not making any apologies for taking Kyle Trask.”
“You know you’ve got teams that have – in back-to-back years – taken quarterbacks in the Top 10, and it’s a premium position,” Licht continued. “You want to hit on it. You get desperate, teams get desperate [looking for a franchise quarterback]. You see what teams give up in trades, you see what they’re doing in money – guaranteed money – all these things to get their quarterback. So to take one in the second round – I have no apologies for that.”
It’s understandable to want to have multiple plans and options at quarterback just in case, but it’s still hard for Bucs fans not to wonder whether or not addressing a different position of need would have been enough to get them closer to a repeat in 2021.
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