With No Starters Left To Find, The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Fill the Need of Backup QB by Selecting Mike Glennon

Mandatory Credit: Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports

When you take a close look at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ depth chart you will quickly notice that there are very few starting spots available. With all the offseason moves and the addition of Johnthan Banks earlier in the night, the Bucs roster has suddenly become chock full of clear starters.

The only positions I really see open are OLB, FB, and PR/KR. Not too many spots to choose from. Pretty much exactly what GM Mark Dominik told us when he said, “the team has no glaring needs.”

So with the 73rd overall pick, the Buccaneers had to figure out something to do. Looking over the available players it was highly unlikely they find a starter at LB or FB, therefore the options are simple, find a return man, or start adding depth.

Choosing a return man in the 3rd round would have been quite the stretch, so unless they found a player they liked as a dual threat, kick returner/something else, it was unlikely that was the route the Buccaneers front office would take. The only guy who fit that mold was Tyrann Mathieu. Couple problems there. The most glaring being that he was already selected, but the other being he is so far from a “Buccaneer Man” that he would have been an extremely unlikely pick.

That leaves the Bucs with a single option, find the best backup you can. One of the spots Tampa Bay is arguably the weakest depth wise would be at quarterback. Freeman has been consistently healthy over his career, but having Dan Orlovsky as the contingency plan just didn’t seem to fit with a team planning on making a run at a playoff spot.

Therefore, the pick is in, and it’s Mike Glennon, QB, NC State. I’m not so high on the pick because I’m not positive he was the best option at the position on the board (definitely Nassib, and probably Barkley), but after some thought, I’m ok with selecting a QB. Depth has been an issue for the Bucs for a few years now. They’ve incurred injuries and not always been able to fill the void.

As mentioned earlier, quarterback has not been an issue in that department before, but you can never be so sure. Glennon will not represent true competition to steal Freeman’s starting spot. But he does offer some upside in the unfortunate event that Josh does get hurt. With Orlovsky you figure the best they could do was tread water, with Glennon you add some unknown which could be a disaster, but also could be a continued attacking offense with downfield throws.

I still prefer adding depth at another position, but the way I see it, if any starter got hurt, the Bucs would be in the worst shape if it were Josh Freeman. That’s still probably the case, but it’s better now than it was before the Mike Glennon era began.