Buccaneers waste money with questionable free agent decision

The Buccaneers have the weirdest fascination with mediocre backup quarterbacks.

Well, the Buccaneers have made their first ridiculous move of the offseason. In fact, this move is just downright bad.

It makes sense to have a few backup quarterbacks on a team where your quarterback is practically as old as the parents of his fellow players, but wouldn’t teams want to use their depth in a way that develops young talent rather than keeping below average guys that don’t move the needle in roster spots?

Why does a team like the Buccaneers need Ryan Griffin and Blaine Gabbert on a roster with Tom Brady and former second-round pick Kyle Trask?

The Gabbert/Griffin infatuation by the Bucs is flat-out weird. Gabbert isn’t a starter in the NFL, and Griffin isn’t even a viable backup. Keeping guys like this in the locker room is one thing, especially when they are a part of the culture, but is it really worth keeping them when you have a young guy like Kyle Trask that the office sees as a legitimate future starter?

Bruce Arians can talk about Gabbert’s potential and bad hand during his playing career all he wants; a handful of snaps over the past few years and some good practices does not erase years of subpar quarterback play. Gabbert is a backup, but pouring these resources and praise into him detracts from Trask’s ability to grow into more than that down the road.

Even if the Bucs like Gabbert as the best backup, this decision only ensures that Trask will develop even less as the third guy for another season. Tampa’s strange love affair with Gabbert is stifling their best chance at developing their most recent quarterback addition, yet they seem to care very little.

Trask needs reps as the second guy if he is truly going to grow into the role. It seems extremely unlikely that he would go from the third guy to the first guy without ever being a legitimate backup for a year, and every bit of this runs counter to what the Bucs say they think about Kyle Trask.

Blaine Gabbert isn’t a starter. Shouldn’t be a starter. Won’t be a good starter if he got the chance. The Bucs are keeping him because they see him as a potential starter down the road if recent comments are to be believed, and that is still a little shocking.

One would think that Todd Bowles would try to avoid mediocre to bad quarterbacks like the plague after he saw how that impacted his job with the Jets. Seems like perhaps he hasn’t learned that like we thought.

Of the numerous quarterbacks available in free agency and the draft, Todd Bowles would have much more luck going after almost anyone else or letting Bruce Arians’ guy develop.

Gabbert and Griffin just aren’t it; especially not together on the active roster or practice squad.

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