TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – With Tom Brady coming back as Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, there’s a trickle-down effect of how that move impacts others on the team. One of them is quarterback Kyle Trask.

This week, Bucs Quarterbacks Coach Clyde Christensen gave us some more clarity on their quarterback depth chart after Tom Brady, explaining that Kyle Trask’s role will be behind Blaine Gabbert.

“I think it’s more of a learning year (for Trask),” Christensen said. “I don’t see him competing with Gabbert this year. He could do it. Just all the odds are stacked against you. You can’t rep everybody. It’s hard to get Gabbert enough reps. We’ll prepare Gabbert as the number two and there’s always competition, right? There’s always someone looking for your job but Gabbert will get – I don’t see that being an either-or. I see Gabbert being the back-up and Kyle being a developmental guy and we’ll rep them that way. If you jump off the screen and he out-plays Brady then he out-plays Brady and we’ll make some decisions.” 

Assuming those decisions are not made, and Trask remains further down the depth chart, it provides a great opportunity for him to learn even more under Brady.

“It buys him another year to develop and watch one of the best in the business do his deal,” Christensen said. “It’s kind of like a redshirt year. It is a challenge to keep concentrating for that long, but I really do think it’s the best thing that could have happened to him.” 

Not having to rush Trask in his developmental process is a luxury for the Bucs, who have been pleased with his progression heading into his second year in the league.

“We like where Kyle’s at,” said Bucs Offensive Coordinator Byron Leftwich. “We just haven’t seen it, right? None of us. None of us have seen it. The only thing we’ve got is preseason reps. I think he’s gotten drastically better from the last time he stepped on the grass. We’ve just got to see it. And he hasn’t actually had the opportunity to be on the grass playing.”  

As far as getting more time on the field, while it may not be coming in games just yet, he will be getting a lot of snaps this next month during OTAs. With that, he should be able to make noticeable strides in this window.

“It continues to be hard to get him enough reps,” Christensen said. “This will really be a great couple of weeks here — the OTAs. We’re going to put a premium, a priority on getting him reps and seeing what he’s like. It’s just hard to judge anyone until you get quality reps against a defense. So that’s one of our goals in this camp.”

“It should be a fun summer for him– offseason for him– where he’s probably going to play a little bit and we’ll get to see him,” Leftwich said. “But I like where he’s at. I like where he’s at from an awareness and understanding standpoint. Now he’s just got to touch the grass and have trial and error really. That’s where he’s at as a development from a quarterback position.” 

“Once you get to training camp it’s all about winning that opening day,” Christensen said. “So we’ll get those veteran guys ready. But these OTAs we have some free reps that we can look at him and that’ll happen. That’s going to happen. That’s on our radar as must be done. That has to be done.”