So far, much has been made about the ongoing battle between Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask. There have been viral videos showing less-than-stellar moments (fair or not) and plenty of debate surrounding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' method of splitting starting reps between the two players.

The latter is obviously a more substantial conversation to be had: Should the Bucs split the reps up? Or should they go ahead and name their guy in order to give him as many reps with the team's best players as possible?

Offensive coordinator Dave Canales was asked about his process a few weeks ago and he offered up a very logical answer that was also rooted in reality.

"For me, it’s a win-win when you create a competition," said Canales. "Here’s why: if you name a starter today, the backup guy starts thinking like a backup. But if you say, this is a competition… For me, what I end up getting out of Drew and Geno, is two guys who had to mentally put themselves in a place where they could be, 'I’m going to be the starter this year.' They trained that way… Drew is playing for his job, Geno is playing for his job – they both know that. Game one, I’ve got a starter in Geno and I’ve got a backup who’s been thinking he’s a starter for six months.

"Whoever won the job was going to be the starter, but the other guy was going to bring so much more value and confidence to our room. That’s been our philosophy and I’d like to take it as far as I can, but of course the head coach, the general manager – we’re going to all have discussions."

It makes sense – giving both players a good chance really does help carve out the room and give the team a lesser chance of a drop-off if the starter were to go down with injury. Plus, it obviously worked with Smith, who had the best year of his career en route to winning the Comeback Player of the Year award and inking a fat contract during the offseason.

However, it's also easy to see the logic behind naming a guy, now. Not only does that allow said guy to get as many top-end reps as possible, but it sends the locker room a message that there is plenty of confidence in him to get the job done. That last part weighs a lot more than people may initially think.

Former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf is of the latter mindset and explained his reasons why on Wednesday's edition of Good Morning Football.

"I would, I would definitely want that. And I think that will be ultimately done," Leaf said when asked if he'd prefer to have all the starting reps in this situation. "If they don't know by now, that Kyle Trask is good enough to be the starter – they drafted him and they've been all in on him. If he had any chance and they were neck-and-neck, I would say Kyle gets the nod over [Baker] because of that, because of his rookie contract – all those things. If they don't know that going into camp, then they don't have a quarterback. Then it's going to be a problem and this team won't be very good this year as they're alternating back and forth.

"You've gotta have a guy and I think Baker Mayfield will distance himself, ultimately… I like Baker Mayfield. I think what he was able to do in that short span of time in Los Angeles last year is a big deal."

"He's [Mayfield's] mature, there's some adversity to it," added Leaf. "You don't get many more stops, as a number one overall pick, to be a starting quarterback. So this may be his last chance to do it and I think he'll make the most of it. I think this team has a real good shot. I think Atlanta is probably going to be in the mix, ultimately; but, the Bucs might be my favorite."

Leaf does make valid points and it's certainly fair to question why the Bucs are so reluctant to give Trask the benefit of the doubt after seeing him up-close for the last two offseasons.

Here's why: The Bucs have seen him up-close, but it's only been in a third-string fashion. And, the Bucs have only seen him in the Bruce Arians offense – they've never seen him in the Canales offense. The Bucs are largely entering unknown territory with Trask, so they're playing their cards in a smart fashion.

When it comes to Mayfield – sure, the guy has eons more experience than Trask and he is semi-familiar with Canales' system. At the same time, the dude is on his fourth team in a year and was not overly impressive in his previous stops. There are just as many doubts with Mayfield, right now, as there are with Trask – you just don't know what you're gonna get from either when the real, yet proverbial, bullets start flying

But, to Leaf's credit, it's going to be really hard to buy into either quarterback if one hasn't distanced himself by early training camp. Canales' approach does make sense, but he's got to pull the trigger if he sees an ever-widening gap, no matter how much they want to give the other guy a shot.

If not, then this will in fact be a very, very long 2023 season.

Featured image via Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports