It Will Be “America’s Quarterback”
June 12th, 2015
“America’s Quarterback” is your Bucs starting quarterback.
Joe had this discussion with another member of the Tampa Bay pen and mic club yesterday while watching the final Bucs OTA practice: If you draft a quarterback No. 1 overall and last year’s backup starts Week One, and everyone is healthy, then something is wrong.
Up to and since the Bucs drafted “America’s Quarterback,” signal-caller Jameis Winston, all we heard was he can make all the throws and that he is rapidly learning the playbook.
So if all of that is true, and Joe finds no reason to believe otherwise, and Jameis is one of the sharpest football minds to come out of college football, then how could he lose in a competition with a guy who couldn’t beat out turnover-prone Josh McClown?
Well, Pat Yasinskas of ESPN smells a rat, too, and he’s not buying the rhetoric from Lovie that this is an open competition. Yasinskas writes that when the Bucs kick off the regular season against the Titans, Jameis will be your Bucs starting quarterback.
The Bucs can make all the noise they want about competition. But the starting quarterback job was decided the moment the Bucs used the first overall draft pick on Winston. Glennon is a nice backup, nothing more and nothing less. Lobato might be practice-squad material.
Winston has the potential to be a superstar, and that’s what the Bucs are banking on. For every bad throw Winston made on Thursday, he had a good one. All the signs are there that he can be a good quarterback.
Winston has picked up the playbook faster than anyone expected. Already, he is making some of the right calls at the line of scrimmage to adjust to the coverages he’s facing. In the OTA sessions that have been open to the media, Winston has thrown some deep passes with exquisite touch to Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson. There have been moments when he has looked good in the short- and medium-range passing games.
Joe believes Winston taking snaps with the second- and third teams the past two weeks is a way of keeping him grounded. Joe can’t imagine after all the grotesque errors in player evaluation that cost Team Glazer tens of millions of dollars last year, how Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht and Lovie Smith could look Team Glazer in the eye and try to explain how their No. 1 overall pick can’t beat out the quarterback of the past and the quarterback of the future but not the quarterback of the present, Mike Glennon.
How on one hand could Jameis be the best thing since sliced bread and on the other, not ready to beat out a backup quarterback of a 2-14 team?
June 12th, 2015 at 5:10 am
I think it is important for Jameis to earn the starting QB job. He literally has to beat out Mike Glennon. I thought this is what the Joe’s have been clamoring for. More competition. If he really is as great as you say this should be no big deal to beat out Mike Glennon by September or hopefully much sooner. This way he will appreciate what he has done and his position as the starter and stay grounded.
June 12th, 2015 at 6:07 am
Ummm….Evan Mathis better be in a bucs uniform soon!!
June 12th, 2015 at 6:11 am
“America’s Quarterback” title in of itself is lunacy. Will NEVER happen with all his haters, based on his off field issues. Glennon probably does look better than Winston in camp, because he isn’t a bad QB. Just had a terrible Offensive Line. Don’t fool yourself that he couldn’t beat out McCown. He was much better than McCown. Saying all that, there is no chance Glennon is the starter once Winston gains some experience. Can’t have the #1 pick in the entire draft sit on the bench, no matter if Glennon looks better now.
June 12th, 2015 at 6:28 am
Even if Glennon is the better QB going into the season Winston should and will be given the job, it will take some time for him to adjust to NFL football there is nothing to gain by sitting him.
June 12th, 2015 at 6:53 am
I could understand starting glennon game one although that idea ruins the season hopes because it’s a nightmare scenario. I personally think that we will see if Winston is ready for game one action in preseason. you’ll have game one where he’s probably really gonna have the dear in the headlights look but what you want is to see him dramtically improve from game one to game two, if that happens he’ll start first game of the season. It really shouldn’t be a ready or not your starting scenario especially if licht and lovie are eyeing the playoffs. having said all that I know Winston is a better quarterback at this very moment than glennon
June 12th, 2015 at 7:13 am
If Lovie didn’t give Glennon a fair chance against a player who sucked in McCown he’s not about to give MG8 a fair shot against the top draft pick.
And while I was beyond peoed last year at the absence of fairness in that “competition” this year I’m with Joe and the others. When you draft a QB #1 unless you have a star on the roster like Favre you simply cannot afford to sit him. Fameis needs the experience and the Glazers need to peddle some hope.
I actually like MG but he’s never going to inspire hope in Buc’s fans. Fameis clearly does.
June 12th, 2015 at 7:25 am
“Glennon is a nice backup, nothing more and nothing less.” – True
“Winston has the potential to be a superstar” – also true
June 12th, 2015 at 7:41 am
We already knew Aaron Rodgers was starting. The real America’s QB
June 12th, 2015 at 7:45 am
Had Koetter been OC last year there is no way Glennon would have been backing up McKown.
Just another example of terrible personnel choices and “development” by Coach Smith’s administration.
June 12th, 2015 at 9:29 am
where are all of Glennon’s teammates crying foul because their guy Glennon did not get a “Fair” shot… Where is Jackson and Evans standing up and saying Glennon that’s my guy, that’s what we needed. Oh, they were to busy texting the GM to draft a real qb.
Stop with the unfair crap. Life is not fair Winners overcome. If Glennon truly had potential to consistently win in the NFL he would have beat out McCown well before the season started. Some of you are acting like glennon came in and lit it up and was pulled. He stunk minus 1.5 quarters. who cares what his interception ratio is when you are checking down and losing games. Wins are the only thing that matters at the end of the day.
June 12th, 2015 at 11:15 am
Would it really be a bad idea to let glennon get pounded early on and when the oline has had time to grow and gel, then through jameis in.
I dont want to ruin the most important draft pick in decades
June 12th, 2015 at 2:41 pm
Terrible nickname. Not good. Go get’em Winston