Bruce Arians weighs in on Buccaneers quarterback situation

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation this offseason. The team needs to figure out who is playing quarterback in 2023 after the retirement of Tom Brady, but it also needs to figure out who will be running the offense.

Right now nobody is in charge of the Bucs offense, with no concrete plan at quarterback and the offensive coordinator position still vacant. Something has to give at some point, but it’s unclear which decision will be made first.

Objectively, the more interesting question revolves around quarterback. Without Brady leading the charge, the Bucs can go a number of different routes to either try and win now with a veteran or build toward a future with a younger quarterback.

Perhaps their best route is to do a little bit of both, which seems increasingly like the preferred method of those in charge of the organization.

Bruce Arians gives his thoughts on what Bucs should do at quarterback

Bruce Arians spoke about the Buccaneers situation at quarterback and seemed to endorse Kyle Trask. He also praised Todd Bowles and made sure to give a shout out to the front office ahead of what will be an interesting offseason of change.

“We got a good young quarterback if they want to use him; look for a veteran,” Arians said. “And Todd’s doing a great job and Jason will do a great job putting the team together.”

Never one to mince words, Arians can always be relied on to tell it like it is. So the fact that he mentioned Trask as a ‘good young quarterback’ should not go unnoticed. Arians isn’t in the snake oil business, and if he didn’t think Trask had enough to at least get a shot at being the Bucs quarterback he would have said so.

This is the guy who called out Tom Brady when the team got off to a slow start in 2020, so he’s not going to protect Trask out of the kindness in his heart.

The same goes for his endorsement of Bowles, which is less surprising given their history together but still notable. Arians took exception to the way some of his former staff members were treated in the wake of the Bucs season this year, which is further evidence that he’s not going to sell anyone a line of bull to save face.

Arians is still a decision maker with Tampa Bay, which is really where this all circles back to. If he thinks Trask is a guy worth seriously looking at as the starter in 2023, or building a future around by finding a strong bridge veteran, then that’s a pretty clear indication of where things might be headed this offseason.

For all the talk of potentially tanking to draft Caleb Williams or another top prospect, it sounds like the Bucs have zero intention of kicking the can down the road more than they have to.