We're still in the thick of the NFL playoffs and the new league year doesn't start until March, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers aren't wasting any time getting a head start on the offseason. After losing to the Washington Commanders in the Wild Card, the Bucs are spending this week conducting exit interviews while the front office gets to work charting a course for what should be a massive offseason.
It's always seemed like the 2025 offseason was going to be the one, as the Bucs have spent the last two offseasons taking their medicine after investing in the Tom Brady era. Tampa Bay has been eating dead money and dealing with hardly any cap space as a result since Brady retired, but the team still managed to win back-to-back division titles and make the playoffs in what should have been a down period.
All credit for that goes to a brilliant front office, one that is getting poached this hiring cycle in large part because of the job that was done the last two seasons. It's a front office that's already hard at work trying to shape the future and it's one that could see a change at quarterback given the latest move.
Buccaneers signing Michael Pratt might be a sign that Kyle Trask won't be back
While free agency doesn't open until March, teams are allowed to sign players currently without deals to futures contracts. They're exaclty what they sound like, as teams are basically earmarking players for deals once 2025 contracts can become official.
One player the Bucs are doing this with is rookie quarterback Michael Pratt, who was a record-breaker during his college days at Tulane.
Pratt finished as Tulane's all-time leader in passing yards, passing touchdowns, and completion percentage while ranking in the Top 10 in passing attempts, passing completions, and 300-yard passing games.
Signing Pratt is actually part of a series of moves the team made, as the Bucs announced this week that 17 players were signed to futures contracts. Teams have been quietly doing this since the regular season wrapped up, with the Buffalo Bills giving a deal to former Buccaneers punter Jake Camarda earlier in January.
Players signed to futures contracts are typically low-wattage moves to pad a team's roster, but for Tampa Bay, it's hard not to read the room given that a quarterback is entering the equation while the other is on the cusp of leaving.
Kyle Trask is set to become a free agent this offseason and there hasn't been any indication that he's part of the team's future plans. Trask has been like a supporting character you completely forget about until they walk into the background scene of a movie; he's thrown exactly 11 passes since being drafted in 2022, completing just four of them.
The closest he's come to being relevant for the Bucs was back in 2023 when he was the successor to Tom Brady for about a week by way of being the only quarterback in the room before later competing with Baker Mayfield for the starting job. It was a short competition and Trask has been nothing more than an emergency backup option who carries the designation of backup QB.
It all sounds rougher than intended, but Trask has experienced almost no meaningful development while in Tampa Bay and the writing seems to be on the wall for him to try to restart his career elsewhere. There's a world where he accepts his lot as a career backup and returns to Tampa Bay fully leaning into that role -- like Blain Gabbert did during the Brady years -- but the addition of Pratt suggests that's not a job that will simply be handed to him.
There's continuity with Trask in the quarterback room, but Pratt resets the clock a little bit. Tampa Bay also has a number of other areas it needs to devote money to -- like finding a pass rusher and linebacker depth -- which makes allocating money to Trask even less of a priority.
Pratt is entering his second season and has already started to lay down some roots in the Bucs' system. He was signed to the practice squad after not making Green Bay's 53-man roster back in September, and has a year under his belt in learning from Baker and Liam Coen. He's not going to compete for the starting job, but now that the Bucs have a clear plan with Mayfield as the franchise quarterback, it makes sense for them to add in a new backup to work with him.
Again, Trask could still return on a cheap deal to continue being the backup but it's hard not to read into this move. Even if it's not Pratt, the Bucs will be in the market for a quarterback this offseason as Trask's time in Tampa Bay seems to have run its course.
More Tampa Bay Buccaneers news and rumors