The QB Blast: Landry Jones Is Bucs’ Best Plan B
April 24th, 2013
Former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson
**This post got lost a bit in the Darrelle Revis hoopla on Sunday morning, so Joe’s tossing it up here again. Enjoy.
Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes The QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe loves when Carlson fires away. Carlson is often seen as a football color analyst on Bright House Sports Network, and he trains quarterbacks of all ages locally via his company, America’s Best Quarterback. Plus, he’s a really cool dude.
By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com
This year’s draft does not offer an Andrew Luck, RGIII or Russell Wilson, quarterbacks with the ability to come in and start on Day 1. The Buccaneers don’t have that Day 1 need, but developing a QB for the future should be a priority even though Freeman is still very young, a third- or fourth-round pick used on a quarterback with promise is prudent.
Whether Josh Freeman has the best season of his life this year and earns a big multi-year contract or doesn’t, having another up-and-coming player ready to go is in the Bucs’ best interest for multiple reasons.
The Dallas Cowboys just rewarded Tony Romo with an unbelievable contract extension ($108 million, $55M guaranteed, $25M signing bonus). That’s for a guy that has led his team exactly nowhere and was on the verge of losing his second head coach under his leadership of the team.
I wrote before last season that if the Cowboys had another year of futility, it should be Romo’s last season in Dallas. They struggled again yet gave him one of the richest extensions in history, mainly because Jerry Jones did not do his due diligence to develop another young QB like they had in Romo behind Drew Bledsoe under Bill Parcells,. That left Jones without options and now they have mortgaged their future against a good regular season QB who can’t seem to lead them to anything that matters.
I don’t want to see the Bucs make that decision with Freeman because they don’t have the foresight to develop the depth of their roster at the most important position.
Landry is the right fit for the Bucs for a variety of reasons, writes former Bucs QB Jeff Carlson
Of this year’s group, I came away most impressed by Oklahoma’s Landry Jones. He has the best mechanics and pro-style potential and very well could be available to the Bucs when they should invest in the quarterback position.
Better ball protection was his biggest issue, but he owns the best balance in the draft and can learn to throw the ball away a little bit better and work on his pocket movement as well. He has a lot of starting experience and he fits the Bucs’ style better than the rest of this year’s hopeful signal-callers.
Florida State’s EJ Manuel would probably be my next choice based on potential upside. I would probably bore JoeBucsFan readers with analysis of his spotty and inconsistent mechanics and what he should do to improve them, but Manuel is big, mobile and also has an awful lot of experience on his resume.
E.J. Manuel’s mechanics need work
Freeman has 108 million reasons to hope he can take a couple of steps up and lead the Bucs into the playoffs in 2013, –while he keeps Landry Jones on the bench learning the ropes of the NFL game all season long.
April 24th, 2013 at 11:36 pm
Totally agree, I would be surprised if the bucs did not draft a Qb somewhere in this draft if its Jones or someone else unless they are planning on getting one sometime after the draft. It would be good insurance if anything goes wrong. Orlovsky appears at best to be a journeyman so we need to improve.
April 25th, 2013 at 12:22 am
Landry is terrible, regressed every year, no thanks.
April 25th, 2013 at 12:56 am
Paste as text Joe, paste as text!
April 25th, 2013 at 12:56 am
Please – Please – Please Draft a quality Quarterback that will really compeat with Freeman. Now he just feels to safe. He doesn’t think they would replace him no mater how badly he stinks up the games.
April 25th, 2013 at 1:34 am
For every QB drafted they’ll be another QB released during the 2nd wave of FA or during training camp. If the team is hesitant with this years draft crop, wouldn’t be surprised to see them grab one of the pending FA QB’s to compete with Orlovsky and draft one next year.
April 25th, 2013 at 3:19 am
Yeah as a Florida State Grad and Proud Seminole I don’t think E.J. Manuel is going to produce at the next level he’s inconsistant and never had big games againts major talent SEC teams and he lost to Landry Jones twice. Jimbo Fischer made Jamarcus Russell into a number one pick and couldn’t get this kid to perform at a respectable level. He was the only option at F.S.U basically in the same position as freeman is with the Buccaneers currently the hnic with no one behind him appose the threat of taking his spot. He took a direct head shot in the Florida game from a linebacker that knocked him out cold because he was staring down his primary for five seconds. No thanks on EJ
April 25th, 2013 at 4:13 am
Carlson I u with mechanics but what about decision making and seeing thE field?
April 25th, 2013 at 5:20 am
Jordan Rogers….sec talent, could probably be had in the 6th. Not the big guy with a big arm like Freeman, but mobile and accurate with short passes. If we dont like him after this year, and Freeman isnt cutting it, we can get one of the QB’s early next year.
April 25th, 2013 at 7:14 am
Every one of these QB’s, including the top tier, have problems that have to be overlooked” , but where the Bucs will probably take a “chance” on a QB prospect, Landry Jones has less mechanical problems to work on than the others.
April 25th, 2013 at 7:54 am
Nice read. There’s a lot of room for Jones to improve at the easy stuff