The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a legitimate QB1 battle on their hands between Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask. Todd Bowles announced Wednesday that both guys will start a game apiece to begin the preseason and by the sounds of his latest comments, perhaps Mayfield does have the upper hand, although Bowles won't openly say it.

Via Joe BucsFan.com (H/T PFT):

“We got a good basis of where we are with those two guys. And we just need to see some things Friday as far as running the offense and getting a feel for where they are. We kind of have a good basis and ground basis of what we want to do. But seeing them perform is completely different from game to practice. So we got an idea and we got a good feel. So we’ll kind of let it play out a little bit more. but we have a good stat sheet where we kind of have everything rated of how we see them.

“Baker has learned humility . . . he’s learned how to fight and come back on the inside and he has a chance to do something special if he starts here.”

Mayfield starts Week 1 of the preseason for the Buccaneers against the Steelers. Trask then gets the chance to do his thing the following week versus the Jets. While Baker undoubtedly has more experience, there is no question Trask was a sponge behind Tom Brady for two years.

Whoever starts Week 3 of the preseason on August 26th will probably end up being the starter for 2023. We'll see if that's Mayfield or Trask.