Trask missed a drive and a half in all, returning to the game with 1:03 left in the third and playing a similar game to his first stint in the lineup.
He made a handful of errant throws, but he looked comfortable stepping up in the pocket most of the night, displayed some surprising niftiness and was often content to take what was available short.
He became more emboldened in crunch time, though, spreading his only three pass attempts of 20-plus yards across the last five minutes of either half. Trask capped off a 79-yard drive near the close of the second quarter with a 33-yard strike that impressive rookie wide receiver Trey Palmer tipped to himself just over the reach of Jets cornerback Derrick Langford.
Trask repeated a 79-yard possession several drives into his return to the field, milking away the clock with a seven-point lead over New York and ripping passes of 36 and 26 yards to Rakim Jarrett and Taye Barber, respectively.
The effort ended in a missed 32-yard kick by Rodrigo Blankenship, another player in a position battle, but those sparks still caught Bowles’ attention.
“Poise,” the coach said Sunday regarding what he’d seen from Trask the night before. “Poise in the pocket. A lot more athleticism — he used his legs when he had to and he was very successful at that. He threw the ball where he was supposed to throw it — he threw some pinpoint passes. He’d like to have a few plays back but overall, I saw a lot of poise and a lot of growth. I thought he did well.”
Even so, it’s somewhat telling that Bowles felt it more prudent to place Trask in the firing line behind a backup offensive line rather than thrust Mayfield into that situation during a meaningless game.
The two played behind the same line composition in preseason game No. 1, with Mayfield getting the start. Instead of flip flopping as initially planned, Trask started Saturday, and then played a little extra.
While reading between the lines might suggest Bowles wanted to keep Mayfield safe for the season opener, the coach was firm that a competition is still ongoing.
Bowles said in his Sunday news conference that his staff still has to meet to determine QB snap counts in the final tune-up for the season. That remains under wraps for now, and so, too, does the Bucs’ starter under center.
“We don’t have a timetable on it,” Bowles said about publicly announcing a decision. “We’ll name it when we name it. We feel comfortable with where we’re at, so we’ll go from there.”