With the help of offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski, Bryon Leftwich may have come full circle as an NFL quarterback.

Locked in a battle to start for the Bucs, Bryon Leftwich is a happy man. In a few short seasons he has gone from starter to back-up to cast off to valued back-up (again) to possibly a starter (again).

As a result, he seems to be a happy guy, so writes Jeff Chadiha of BSPN.com.

It’s fair to say teams weren’t lining up for Leftwich when his contract expired in Pittsburgh. But he also only needed one franchise to see that he’s ready to fight for a job again.

“I needed all those bad things to happen to me in order to get to where I am today,” said Leftwich, who has started only eight games since 2006. “There really wasn’t another way to do it. Looking back, I wish that things had worked out in Jacksonville, but the fact is that they didn’t. There are divorces in the NFL all the time, and I’m not bitter about mine. I know that I’ve moved on.”

What Leftwich realizes is that he can’t let his past affect this opportunity. He came to the Bucs because they told him he’d receive a fair shot at the starting job. Leftwich easily could have stayed on as a backup in Pittsburgh, especially because that team had just won the Super Bowl. But that would have meant accepting a backup job once again, and he wasn’t ready to hold a clipboard for the rest of his career.

It’s possible that Leftwich may not be picking up that clipboard this season.

One thing to keep in mind with the quarterback battle. Bucs general manager Mark Dominik told the fourth estate that a tiebreaker in deciding whether to keep players on the bubble is consistency. Did they just practice well and stink in preseason games or did they play OK in every game and are good in practice, too?

That might be something to keep in mind. Leftwich thus far has been consistent. Luke McCown has not.