2021 NFL Draft: Kyle Trask has a lot to like early on

There’s plenty to like about 2021 NFL Draft prospect Kyle Trask.

It felt like the Florida Gators had just about everyone on their 2019 offense drafted in the 2020 NFL Draft.

As crazy as it may seem, there’s another wave of Gators coming to the NFL in 2021, headlined by star tight end prospect Kyle Pitts. But there’s another Kyle on the Florida offense that deserves some preseason attention, and it’s the guy getting the ball to Pitts — quarterback Kyle Trask.

Although the Gators will work to get backup quarterback Emory Jones more snaps in 2020, Trask is entering really the first offseason of his football career in high school or college as the undisputed starting quarterback.

Seriously.

Trask’s weird journey to starting at Florida

In high school, Trask was the starting quarterback as a freshman, but never again after that. He played at the same school as D’Eriq King in Manvel, TX.

Despite being a backup to King in high school, Trask managed to earn three-star status from recruiting outlets, and a scholarship offer from the Florida program.

After redshirting in 2016 and sitting behind Feleipe Franks from 2017-18, Trask finally replaced Franks as the Gators’ starting quarterback in 2019 and played some outstanding football for the Gators.

Franks has since transferred to Arkansas.

The first chapter as Florida’s starter

Although Florida certainly implemented a lot of passing plays that were high percentage for Trask throughout his first ‘full’ season as a starter, he put up impressive numbers.

He completed almost 67 percent of his passes (354 attempts) with 25 touchdowns and just seven interceptions.

Trask got his first road start in college football in Death Valley against the mighty LSU Tigers, and they gave the eventual undefeated national champions some serious fits.

As a matter of fact, Florida led that game 28-21 until midway through the third quarter when LSU tied it up and eventually went on to win 42-28.

Trask had three touchdowns in that game, showing serious poise under tremendous pressure.

At 6-foot-5, 240 pounds, Trask will undoubtedly draw some Ben Roethlisberger comparisons as he’s tough to bring down and has a good enough arm that he can make throws even with defenders draped all over him.

With that said, there’s plenty to work on.

Trask needs to get a more natural feel for his surroundings, and it’s not surprising considering he has never really been a full-time starter. He needs to prove he can dictate a game rather than react to the game, but he showed some really nice patience and good decision making in his first season as the Gators’ starter.

Heading into year two…

There are some clear areas of improvement needed for Trask in year two, and the most important is going to be opening up the full passing game to every level of the field and throwing with timing and anticipation on a more consistent basis.

As of right now, he’s able to utilize the quick-strike passing attack to his advantage as well as the run/pass option game to create easy throws, but you can’t do that 100 percent of the time as an NFL starter.

Teams who like Trask will likely have him highly rated for his ability to manipulate defenders and his natural feel for the game, as well as his moxie and poise under pressure.

The fact that he played as well as he did last season with so little experience at the high school or college level speaks to his natural talent.

Although he doesn’t have a rifle for an arm, Trask has plus arm strength and can fit the ball into tight windows and push the ball downfield.

Even with all of the departures of some veteran skill talent in the Florida offense, Trask is in line for a huge improvement in year two as the starter and year one as the undisputed starter going into the season.