TAMPA, Fla. — Six weeks after being cut by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Kyle Trask remains jobless, and Anthony Richardson has fallen down the depth chart in Indianapolis.

Fair to say, it has not been a good season for former University of Florida quarterbacks in the NFL.

And, when you think about it, that’s perfectly on brand. In case you hadn’t noticed, the NFL is a proverbial black hole for former Gator passers.

Seriously, can you think of another major college program with less impact when it comes to professional quarterbacks?

You don’t have to take my word for it. Ask yourself which UF quarterback has had the best NFL career.

Tim Tebow? He had 16 starts in the NFL. Heck, Mike Glennon had twice as many starts. Mike Glennon.

Steve Spurrier? In the league for 10 years and won 13 games as a starter.

John Reaves? Threw twice as many interceptions (34) as touchdowns (17) in his NFL career after being the No. 14 pick overall in 1972.

Shane Matthews? Spent time with six franchises and never won more than three games in a season.

(And, no, we are not counting Cam Newton. He spent parts of two seasons in Gainesville, but never started a game for Florida. He eventually left amid accusations of misbehavior and, two years later, won a Heisman at Auburn before being a No. 1 pick. Ditto for Jacoby Brissett, who threw 74 passes at Florida before transferring to North Carolina State.)

The closest Florida comes to a legit quarterback in the NFL is Rex Grossman. He had one glorious season in 2006 when he led the Bears to the Super Bowl, but the good times barely survived the offseason. Three games into 2007, Grossman lost his starting job to Brian Griese.

Still, Grossman started more games (47) and threw for more yards (10,232) than any Florida QB before or since.

And do you know where those 10,232 yards put him in the NFL record book? No. 214, just ahead of Mark Malone and just behind Jack Trudeau. So, yeah, the NCAA has produced 213 quarterbacks with more productive passing numbers than anybody coming out of The Swamp.

The Ivy League has churned out three better quarterbacks. A host of directional schools (Southern Illinois, Eastern Illinois, Northern Iowa, Eastern Michigan, Central Washington, Northern Colorado) have had better quarterbacks. There are schools I couldn’t find on a map (Occidental, Augustana, Milton) that have had successful NFL quarterbacks. Miami, Florida State and UCF have had seven individual QBs with more passing yards than anyone from UF.

Don’t get me wrong. This is not a knock on Florida’s recruiting or talent level. When you’ve won three national championships and produced three Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks (Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel, Tebow), you’ve got one of the more decorated programs in the nation.

This is more of an oddity. A “Ripley’s Believe it or Not!” fascination. Like the Beach Boys never winning a Grammy.

It’s not as if Florida has a Nebraska-like history of run-first quarterbacks (and even Nebraska produced Vince Ferragamo, who won more games and threw for more yards than Grossman) whose skills were not conducive to the NFL.

The opposite is actually true. From 1990 to 2010, according to College Football Reference numbers, the Gators threw more touchdown passes than any major college program in the nation. Basically, for three decades or more, Florida was the gold standard for college passing attacks.

You can go back even farther, if you like. Spurrier was the first quarterback taken in the 1967 draft at No. 3. Reaves was the second quarterback taken in 1972. Even in recent years, UF passers have been coveted. Grossman was the fourth quarterback taken in 2003, Tebow was the second in 2010, Richardson was the third in 2023. Heck, even Trask was the sixth quarterback selected in 2021.

And yet UF quarterbacks have a 76-114 record as starters in the NFL.

To put that in perspective, Milton College’s Dave Krieg (98-77) has more NFL victories by himself. So does Augustana’s Ken Anderson (91-81) and Alcorn State’s Steve McNair (91-62) and Southern Illinois’ Jim Hart (87-88-5) and Eastern Illinois’ Tony Romo (78-49).

Of course, the numbers aren’t completely mocking for Gator quarterbacks.

Once, there was a passer from the tiny Florida town of Mayo who was ignored by most colleges and chose to walk-on at UF in 1983. He earned the starting job as a redshirt freshman, led the SEC in passing yards as a sophomore and eventually was drafted by the Dolphins.

Over the years, Kerwin Bell was in camp with at least five teams, not to mention the Canadian Football League, before playing in his first NFL game in 1996 at age 31. With both Jim Harbaugh and Paul Justin injured, Bell came off the bench and completed 5 of 5 passes for 75 yards and one touchdown in a win against the Eagles. It was the only appearance of his NFL career.

Bell had a passer rating of 158.3 for that game, which is the highest possible calculation.

Imagine that. If nothing else, the Gators can say they at least had one perfect NFL quarterback.

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