TAMPA, Fla. -- With Tom Brady retired "for good" and a starting quarterback position up for grabs, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers opened training camp Wednesday in a quiet, closed practice that saw both Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask taking steps forward.

Mayfield has looked to be the leader in the clubhouse since minicamp, but the coaching staff and front office have cautioned against making early predictions.

"People can have in their head, 'Well, it seems like it's for sure going to be this person or it's not going to be this person,' but until we're out there, anything can happen," Bucs general manager Jason Licht said. "It's going to be a lot of fun just to really focus on how this is going to play out."

Coach Todd Bowles said they won't name a starter until sometime during the preseason, which gets underway Aug. 11 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He wouldn't reveal a date, but Bowles has communicated it to the coaching staff, and in the meantime, Mayfield and Trask will alternate first-team reps.

It was Mayfield who got first-team reps Wednesday, although both QBs had a solid first day, with neither throwing an interception. Mayfield's best play came early during 11-on-11s when he faked a handoff to running back Rachaad White, rolled out and fired a deep shot to a wide-open tight end Cade Otton for a touchdown.

Trask's most impressive moment came when he laced a perfect pass between two defenders to wide receiver Chris Godwin on a crossing route, with Trask showing a better command of the system than he did at mandatory minicamp six weeks ago.

It's a different scheme than the team ran under former offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich the last four years, with the Bucs hiring longtime Pete Carroll assistant Dave Canales to replace him this offseason. There are bootlegs, waggles and rollouts -- all which would have been rare sightings under retired quarterback Tom Brady the last three years -- as the Seahawks had the sixth-most passing attempts in the league last year from outside the pocket (97 compared to the Bucs' 20, which was last in the league).

So on the surface, it caters to Mayfield's strengths -- particularly his mobility -- but Trask, a second-round pick by the Bucs in 2021, has spent the last two years improving his body composition and honing his athletic attributes, something the coaching staff and front office have praised him for. In college, Trask was successful outside of the pocket -- completing 61.5% of his throws, which was the fifth-best among Power 5 conference quarterbacks from 2019 to 2020. He also produced a 75% completion percentage on designed rollouts.

"We started seeing that in training camp [his first year], how he was starting to thin out and look more athletic and quicker than we saw him coming out of Florida," Licht said of Trask. "I think that's something that Kyle has done on his own, but it certainly does help him with the system.

"His footwork, his arm strength has improved, his accuracy, he's making quicker decisions -- Dave [Canales] has done a great job with [quarterbacks coach] Thad [Lewis] on getting him to make quicker decisions and throw quicker."

Trask was the Bucs' third-string quarterback the last two seasons and saw his first regular-season action in January, when Brady was taken out of the season finale against the Atlanta Falcons. Trask finished 3-of-9 passing for 23 yards.

Mayfield's path has been a bit different since being taken No. 1 overall by the Cleveland Browns in 2018, and he's now on his third team since being traded almost a year ago to the Carolina Panthers.

However, Mayfield was able to lead the Browns to their first playoff win in 26 years in 2020, throwing for 263 yards and three touchdown passes in a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"Kyle has this inner confidence, and Baker has a more 'wear it on your sleeve' confidence type of thing. Both get it done effectively," Bowles said. "Kyle is very vocal when he needs to be. He comes across as quiet, but he's very loud on the field, he's very confident in what he's doing, and we like the way he leads it and we like the way Baker leads."

When asked about Trask's greatest attributes, Licht said, "The inner strength that he has, the inner confidence, nothing is too big for him. He's had to sit and wait for his opportunity his entire football career and has done that now. Nothing seems too big for him, once again. He's made tremendous strides here just this spring from where he was when we first got him."

As for Mayfield, Licht added: "He’s full of energy, he does all the right things, he's working his butt off, he has a little bit of an attraction to him because of the energy that he has out there. But, once again, once the bullets start flying and we start playing, people [and] players gravitate to the player that they think is going to give them the best opportunity to win."

Godwin said the biggest difference he sees is the way the quarterbacks carry themselves.

"Kyle is a little more laid back. Baker has a little bit more of a chip on his shoulder," Godwin said. "They both throw really good balls. They both have the ability to process information fast and get us in the right spot, so just their personalities. That is not to say that one is better than the other."