Buccaneers: QB room needs restructuring after Ryan Griffin re-signing
By Rob Leeds
The Buccaneers need younger talent in their quarterback room.
Ryan Griffin and Blaine Gabbert are not the future of the Buccaneers. If either player lines up under center for a decent chunk of the 2021 NFL season, the year is already a wash for the Bucs.
Gabbert and Griffin are decent backups, but that is the absolute maximum of their abilities. Neither will come in and save the Bucs in the event of a disaster, nor would most backups, but there are still plenty of better options for Tampa to use down the road.
If they do indeed like Gabbert, bringing back Griffin makes next to no sense. With Griffin re-signed, Gabbert should be on the way out if the Bucs were legitimately planning for the future, but that isn’t happening now.
Some fans would point out that the team is going all-in right now to keep this Super Bowl window intact with the same QB room that hoisted the Lombardi Trophy last season, but that makes next to no sense as well.
Griffin and Gabbert can’t run a convincing scout team, won’t save the Bucs if Brady goes down, and they eat up roster space that should be used on other positions anyway. There is no point in keeping two 31-year old quarterbacks on the roster behind one who is 43 already. There is no youth, and thus no viable plans for the future.
Even a rookie can step into Griffin’s role to wear a ball cap on the sideline on gameday. A rookie would also struggle if thrust into a game situation like the counterparts on the roster now, the only difference is that they have a future and some potential.
In a perfect world, a Blaine Gabbert re-singing won’t follow the recent Ryan Griffin news. That would be just like putting a hat on a hat. The Bucs need a younger option to rely on in the future and to follow Brady, and this would fill their backup role much better than the current options.
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