Lovie Smith will consider drafting a QB
Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith is introduced as head coach during a press conference at One Buccaneer Place. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
The best rookie quarterback from last year’s draft class wasn’t Geno Smith or E.J. Manuel, as Tampa Bay Buccaneers signal-caller Mike Glennon looked better than those two in his first season out of N.C. State. Smith showed some promise when he wasn’t turning the ball over and Manuel has the full backing of the Bills organization as a first-round pick, but Glennon is in the most likely position to lose his job despite outplaying those two QBs. I wonder if it’s because he has less perceived upside than those two, and he certainly isn’t as mobile as Smith or Manuel. But Glennon has a high amount of arm talent, and he showed it in the pre-draft process. He isn’t a consistent QB, but he did a really nice job of limiting his mistakes. I personally believe that the Bucs should give him another year, but I’m not adverse to them at least considering drafting a QB this year.
New Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith certainly isn’t against drafting a QB either, and he also has less loyalty to Glennon than Greg Schiano did. According to the Tampa Bay Times’s Rick Stroud, Smith stated that he thinks there will be a franchise-caliber QB available when the Bucs are on the clock with the seventh pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. That QB could be Blake Bortles, Derek Carr, or Johnny Manziel, and they all fit that profile, so Smith’s assertion is on point.
He added, “Whenever you have a chance to get a franchise quarterback, you have to consider that.”
As the Buccaneers should. But should they actually pull the trigger? Only if they are beyond-all-doubts sold on a QB prospect, and I don’t think that’s going to happen. Those three QBs have plenty of talent and upside, but they are all so raw that I wouldn’t bank on Jason Licht, Lovie Smith, and the Bucs pulling the trigger.
Smith didn’t criticize Glennon, but this statement wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of his current starting quarterback, “To say right now that Mike is the answer and he’s our quarterback of the future and we’re going to build around him and give him a 20-year contract right now, you’re not there.