The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have seen better days as a franchise.

No one should've had any crazy expectations about this season based on some key departures and some cap problems, but it still hurts to watch a team drop three games in a row.

The outlook on the rest of the year isn't all that pretty in Tampa, and the push to replace Baker Mayfield as the starter is only going to increase if the results like this continue.

For what it is worth, Baker Mayfield isn't a bad quarterback. That isn't exactly what this is about.

Mayfield has been fine for the most part. Some better deep accuracy would help, but the overall performance has fallen firmly in the 'mediocre' category.

This has been good enough to beat the bad teams, but the good teams are going to require more out of the most important position on the field.

If you extrapolate this play out over a year, the Bucs miss the playoffs and then sit in an extremely uncomfortable spot of being outside of the prime spots to find a new face of the franchise.

Being just good enough to not be bad in the NFL is not a place that any team should want to be. Mayfield may be able to play well enough to keep the Bucs out of the running to find a new quarterback, which is to his benefit, but this doesn't help the Bucs in the long run.

Mayfield has been good for this year, but he is probably not the long-term answer at quarterback. That could lead to some people loudly wondering what Kyle Trask can do.

Trask did lose the quarterback competition at the start of the year, but that didn't mean that he didn't flash some quality play from time to time. There may be enough there for the coaching staff to consider giving him some shots during the regular season, and that may be to the benefit of the Bucs.

Trask will either play well or he won't. Both contingencies help the Buccaneers more than Baker Mayfield playing as he is.

Trask playing poorly seems like the more likely outcome, and this would simply push the Bucs closer to a better quarterback option in a stacked draft class.

Trask playing well would just give the Bucs a cheaper option to consider for next season while also giving Tampa a perfect opportunity to evaluate a guy that they invested so much in.

However, all of this would require Todd Bowles and the rest of the coaching staff to accurately evaluate the prospects of this team, and that is easier said than done.

Pulling Mayfield would be a clear acknowledgement that this team isn't a favorite to make or do well in the playoffs, which is the truth. Bowles just won't like admitting that, especially not for the sake of his job.

Still, if this is the move that pushes the Buccaneers closer to a positive future, Bucs fans should be more than happy to see it happen. They just may not love the uncomfortable steps that come between now and that goal.

Buccaneers beat themselves in brutal loss to Bills

That was just ugly by Tampa.