With Byron Leftwich named the Buccaneers’ starter on Saturday, interest turned to how they’d stack up the three players bidding to back him up.
First-round pick Josh Freeman is making the team, obviously. Assuming Luke McCown’s role in the fight for the starting spot assures him of a place on the roster, the fate of Josh Johnson becomes the biggest questions.
Attempting to cut Johnson and re-sign him to the practice squad would almost certainly see him landing with another team via waiver, so the options are keeping four and staying shorthanded at another spot or letting Johnson go.
For most of the offseason, coach Raheem Morris has said that the team
would keep three quarterbacks on the final roster. With the deadline
for setting that roster approaching quickly, Morris sounds like he’s
changing his tune.
“There are always reservations about [keeping four quarterbacks],
because you lose a roster spot, but I’ve been preaching from the
beginning that I’ve got to keep my best 53 guys on this football team,”
Morris said. “We have a long-term plan here, and Josh Johnson may be a
part of that long-term plan.”
Johnson was inactive for all 16 games in 2008 and has played sparingly in the preseason. He’s completed 5-of-9 passes, and he ran for a 43-yard touchdown against the Titans.
As a senior at USD, the 6-2 213 pound Johnson completed 68.4 percent of his passes for 2,988 yards and tossed 43 touchdowns and just one interception.
While he played against lesser competition, these numbers clearly illustrate that he makes excellent decisions. Furthermore, his athletic ability – nearly 1400 rushing yards in his final two seasons – makes it difficult to let JJ go.
I understand their dilemma.
This is a ploy to get trade value for Johnson.
Don’t pay any attentin to what Morris claims, he will carry only 3 QB’s.
Or the Bucs might just be saying they might keep four quarterbacks in a pathetically desperate stunt to try to trade one for like a conditional seventh round pick or something.
In a stare down similar in intensity to the Cuban Missile Crisis the Bucs are trying to see if any other NFL teams will be the first to BLINK and give up a 2010 seventh round pick – who will eventually wind up getting cut right around this time next year – for Josh “Peter Tosh” Johnson.
Please keep us up to date on this incredibly fascinating story of NFL roster “chicken”.
Green Bay needs A QB…if Rodgers goes down the Packers are screwed.
4 QB’s = Dumb
Raheem seems to waffle a lot.
But I agree that you just can’t cut any of those QBs. They need to get value in a trade or keep all four.
The Bucs are going to need all the QB’s available when DeMarcus Ware meets them Oct 13.
GO DALLAS COWBOYS!!!
Yeah, you definitely don’t want to make the wrong decision in a battle like Leftwich and McCown. What if you let the wrong one go, and lose 13 games instead of just 12?
Seriously, trying to decide who should QB the Bucs is like trying to decide if you’d rather be kicked in the left nut or the right one.
GO FALCONS!
Not surprising!
They showed their lack of decision making when they signed Leftwich with his horrible QB attributes and not so successful NFL career and again by naming him the starter (What a JOKE!).
Likely career suicide (hopefully) for this Morris and the Bucs will step up and actually hire a winning head coach that can fix what he seems to be screwing up!