Philadelphia Eagles Cary Williams on potentially blitzing Mike Glennon

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Mike Glennon (8) runs back to the sidelines during the first half against the Arizona Cardinals at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be playing today despite a brief MRSA scare that will cause one player (Carl Nicks) to miss the game, and a big storyline is rookie quarterback Mike Glennon. He struggled in his first start for Josh Freeman against the Arizona Cardinals, but the strong-armed N.C. State product has had a week to go over the tape from that game and correct some of his mistakes. That set-up was by design, as Buccaneers GM Mark Dominik said shortly after making his decision to start Glennon. With Freeman gone, it’s all-or-nothing for the Bucs with Glennon.

There is no doubting Glennon’s physical tools and live arm, but there is plenty of well-deserved doubt regarding his ability to succeed under pressure. As we saw during his days at N.C. State, Mike Glennon has a tendency to break down when the pocket gets muddied, and that’s why he always looks almost too-good-to-be-true in shorts and shells workouts when compared to his actual game tape. Glennon will get better at playing under pressure with experience, but that’s definitely something the Philadelphia Eagles can take advantage of.

Unfortunately, the Eagles are worried enough about getting beat once blitzing, because they have one of the league’s worst secondaries. I mean, it’s telling that the Eagles really need Patrick Chung to start at free safety over Glennon’s former teammate at N.C. State in Earl Wolff. Eagles offseason signing and cornerback Cary Williams spoke about the need to take advantage of a rookie QB by putting pressure on him, and I think it’s implied that Glennon in particular struggles with pass rushers in his face.

From the Philadelphia Inqurier, “We want to use that inexperience to our advantage. We want to pressure him and get him under duress as much as possible. We want to disrupt the timing between him and his wide receivers, and when we can do that we can have success against rookie quarterbacks.”

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter for more NFL updates and analysis @SorianoJoe. Be sure to like us on Facebook here and follow our site on Twitter as well.