August 30th, 2026
Major gamble.
UPDATED: The Bucs today cut Jake Browning. This surprised Joe. Very much so.
Browning was solid in practice. Might have been the best backup quarterback Joe has seen from the Bucs since Blaine Gabbert.
(For the folks now howling about the previous paragraph, every backup QB sucks; otherwise, he wouldn’t be a backup. Think about it.)
What adds to Joe’s surprise is the Bucs, apparently, are going with a rookie undrafted free agent who doesn’t know the playbook yet and struggles with snaps from under center after being in a shotgun college offense.
Did Jalon Daniels Friday night look like he was capable of guiding the Bucs to the playoffs in a pinch? Yeah, his line sucked. This just in: It also sucked the two previous worthless preseason games.
Joe thinks Daniels will be fine given time. You know, so he can master the playbook and get snaps down.
Unless the Bucs have their eyes on someone else who will be unemployed tonight (Kyle Trask?), the Bucs are taking a massive risk here.
Joe previously wrote that fans need to light candles for Tristan Wirfs, Ben Bredeson, Graham Barton, Cody Mauch and Luke Goedeke because if one of those guys gets hurt, watch out!
Now you can add Baker Mayfield to that list of players deserving prayers and protection from the Almighty.
Don’t be too surprised if Browning is back on the team via the practice squad.