In the hours leading up to the start of the draft on Thursday night, Buccaneers quarterback Mike Glennon’s name came up as a rumored target of the Patriots in the event the Patriots traded current backup Ryan Mallett to the Texans.
Such a move would leave the Bucs without a backup to Josh McCown or a young quarterback to develop behind the veteran, although that’s the sort of thing they could take care of as the draft unfolds. They chose not to do that with the seventh overall pick, taking wide receiver Mike Evans at that spot, and coach Lovie Smith said after the first round that McCown was a player they still had big plans for down the road.
“There are a lot of good players, but it’s what’s best for us. Just talking about our quarterback position: our quarterback position is as strong as, to me, any quarterback position I’ve had when I’ve been a head coach,” Smith said. “You know how much I like Josh McCown as our starter here, but I love Mike Glennon. Mike Glennon is our quarterback of the future here. Why would we want to add a third quarterback to the mix? We needed other positions and forget just a quarterback position – yeah, we like it, but we thought this was the best available player for us. It was an easy decision for us.”
Derek Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo both spent time with the Buccaneers during the pre-draft process, so there are still options available to the Bucs if they want to change directions when it comes to their future quarterback. With other teams still looking for quarterbacks, it’s not the worst idea to play it cool if you want one of those players to make it to the sixth pick of the second round.
Should the second round pass without a quarterback joining the roster, there’s a pretty good chance Glennon will remain the quarterback of the future in Tampa.