New OC Dave Canales Offers Thoughts on Baker Mayfield, Kyle Trask, and John Wolford

Canales is excited about the trio of players that will get a chance to be Tampa Bay's starting quarterback in 2023.

Things are going to look a lot different under center for the Buccaneers in 2023 with Tom Brady officially moving on from the sport. For the first time in three years, the team will have a new starting quarterback paired with a different offensive coordinator.

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Stepping into the shoes that were formerly worn by Byron Leftwich, freshly hired offensive coordinator Dave Canales is excited about what he has to work with in Tampa Bay. After adding a pair of veterans - Baker Mayfield and John Wolford - alongside rising third-year quarterback Kyle Trask, Canales believes the room has a lot to offer.

"From Baker, what's cool about him is he's got a ton of game experience so there's a lot of conversations happening about things that he did or saw or did this in games," Canales said on Wednesday.

"With Kyle, what's cool is you do see, just talking about being around Tom for two years, you see his tempo and his control and his drop mimicking the guy that was the greatest of all time," Canales continued. "He's got a great starting point. If you were going to play behind somebody, who better than [Brady]. And that frame, that 6-foot-5 frame."

"We just signed John Wolford too which is a huge get for me because he walks in, he's the smartest guy in the room day one. He's really dialed in, excited about the opportunity," Canales added. "Just moved to Miami so couldn't be a better situation for he and his wife so I'm excited for him to bring that value. He's played games and he really knows our system. There's a lot of good carryover from what they did at the Rams to what we were doing the last two years in Seattle so it's a great room."

John Wolford has yet to arrive after he was signed by the Buccaneers on Tuesday. That's led to Mayfield and Trask being the only quarterbacks in the building to this point. Despite the slim numbers, Canales has been impressed by the early signs that both players are showing, noting that they are coming along well together.

"Honestly, the guys are both plenty smart enough to handle our alerts, or our checks, getting us to the right types of plays," Canales said. "I've seen that now. So I see two guys where I walk into the room in the mornings, they're already in there. They're talking, they got their books out, they're watching a game, so they're already cohesive. They just kind of are doing really well together."

It doesn't sound like the Buccaneers are in any rush to name a starting quarterback. This is a battle that is expected to progress deep into training camp and the preseason. 

Mayfield may have the leg up from the outside looking in due to his experience at the professional level. At the same time, Wolford has started four games during his three years in the league while Trask still has potential to be tapped after learning behind Tom Brady.

Regardless of who comes out on top, the Buccaneers have enough talent at other positions on offense to manage in a unit that's expected to be more dynamic this upcoming season.

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