At one point in March, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had just two quarterbacks under contract, one of whom was apparently headed into retirement. Now they've got the whole gang back together.
On Wednesday, the Buccaneers announced the re-signing of 12th-year quarterback Blaine Gabbert, who has spent the past two seasons as Tom Brady's primary backup. This is the third straight year that Gabbert has re-upped with Tampa Bay after originally signing with the team in March of 2019.
The Buccaneers now have all four quarterbacks they carried on the active roster and the practice squad back in the fold. Brady chose not to retire in the end and 2021 second-round pick Kyle Trask will be going into his second season. Ryan Griffin, who was on the Bucs' active roster for most of the 2015-20 seasons before spending last year on the practice squad, also re-signed with the team last week.
Gabbert has extensive experience in the offense developed by former Buccaneers Head Coach Bruce Arians and now run by Offensive Coordinator Byron Leftwich, having played for that duo in both Tampa and Arizona. He signed with the Cardinals in 2017 and made five starts, compiling a 2-3 record. He has appeared in 10 games over the past two seasons with the Buccaneers, completing 16 of 27 passes for 210 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Much of that action came in a Week 16 win at Detroit in which Brady was given the second half off and Gabbert came in to complete nine of 15 passes for 143 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 125.8.
In all, Gabbert has played in 60 games and made 48 starts. He has completed 858 of his 1,525 pass attempts for 9,273 yards, 50 touchdowns and 47 interceptions. In the Arians-Leftwich system he connected on 102 of 182 passes for 1,153 yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions.
The 6-5, 235 Gabbert initially entered the NFL as a first-round pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars, selected 10th overall in 2011 out of the University of Missouri. He played three seasons in Jacksonville and made 27 starts, including 14 in his rookie campaign. The Jaguars traded Gabbert to San Francisco in March of 2014 and he made 13 more starts over three seasons with the 49ers.
