Bucs coach Raheem Morris still plans to name Tampa’s starting quarterback this week, but Saturday night’s game against Jacksonville didn’t make his decision any easier.
That’s assuming, of course, that his decision wasn’t already made.
With Morris reportedly leaning towards Byron Leftwich, Luke McCown made his case for the job.
McCown threw touchdowns on two of his three possessions against Jacksonville, although he had relatively short fields to work with. Byron Leftwich only led Tampa to three points in his three possessions, and had a low completion percentage for the second straight week. He didn’t play poorly, but he didn’t thread in two touchdown passes either.
It sounds like McCown’s night won’t be enough, though.
As the guys at Pewter Report point out, preseason numbers don’t separate these two whatsover. Add up the two games, and the players are nearly identical.
Columnists for both local papers believe Leftwich already had the job won because of his play in practice and his veteran savvy. McCown’s play Saturday probably didn’t mean anything.
This is one of the dangers of saying preseason competition will decide
jobs. When the results don’t go exactly as planned, a coach’s words
can seem empty.
And Morris doesn’t want to wait any longer to make his choice.
“Got to make it now, man,” Morris said.
Unless every Tampa source possible is wrong on this one, Morris will choose Leftwich shortly.
The preseason numbers don’t seperate them at all, WTF???
Completion percentage
McCown 59%
Leftwich 46%
Attempts to TDs
McCown 17-2
Leftwich 26-1 (one TD came on a poor throw from a short yardage field position)
QB Rating
McCown 107.5
Leftwich 73.2
Seems that Leftwich has done nothing to show he should have a starting job and has also been outperformed by a fairly large margin by McCown.
Neither is a great QB but how is starting Leftwich over McCown justified if this was a QB competition?
Unless every Tampa source possible is wrong on this one, Morris will choose Leftwich shortly.
========================================
You mean, like last summer, when the Tampa Tribune announced to the world that the Bucs acquired Brett Favre??
The smart move would be to cut McCoun. He has the lowest “talent potential ceiling”. Josh Johnson’s skill level is right there with McCoun…He’ll never make it past waivers…He’ll be the next Steve Young.
I was at the game, Leftwich had about 6 easy catches dropped, including 3 on 3rd down for first down.
Pewter Report’s current report would disagree with this.
Alfie, you point out the drops that Leftwich had but what about the big play where Stovall ran the wrong route on a McCown pass against the Titans?
How about the Hankton drop?
All QBs have to deal with drops and McCown has had his fair share too while still out performing Leftwich.
McCown deserves the job. He’s been on the roster for 4 or 5 years and has never had a chance to showcase his abilities. Give him the job to start the season.
Even if Leftwich does have better pre-season stats than McCown, who cares?
I don’t think too many expect this will be a Super Bowl season for the Bucs. Why not do the smart thing, put the rookie on the bench, let him watch, learn and get pumped up to play while the OL gels.
If Leftwich falters mid-season put the rookie in… aside from that, give him a defacto red-shirt year… he’ll be better for it in the long-run.
I say it goes to mccown, he needs the boost to his ego for confidence. leftwich is better off the bench anyway. logically it makes sense to start mccown and then use lefty off the bench.