The team is less than a week away from their first preseason game

As the quarterback competition between Kyle Trask and Baker Mayfield heats up for the Bucs, an emphasis on quarterbacks taking care of the football is a common theme each day at training camp.

Tampa Bay has seen solid play from both Trask and Mayfield, but if there were an award for winning the turnover battle — or having the fewest of turnovers — that would go to the Bucs youngest signal caller in Trask. That doesn’t go without saying it hasn’t been mistake-free thus far, although head coach Todd Bowles is the first to make sure say that despite a new scheme being installed there is no room for handing the ball to the opposition.

“You always have margin for error, [but] no matter what you’re learning, you don’t want to turn the ball over,” Bowles said. “You’re going to learn certain things because we’re not going against each other from an install standpoint, so the defense will have some things on certain days and the offense will have some things on certain days. But, you don’t ever want to turn the ball over if you can help it – whether you throw it away, throw it in the dirt. Some things you want to try out and get the kinks out and there’s a certain amount of time for that, but as you get closer to preseason and the season, you definitely don’t want to turn the ball over.”

The Bucs are closer to the preseason indeed, with just under a week before they face the Steelers. Heading into this week we’ve seen countless interceptions thrown by Mayfield with a couple mishandled snaps while Trask has been superior in taking care of the football.

The evaluation is far from over but if Bowles is one to praise a player for taking of the football at practice, than he most certainly is one guy he’d be proud of.