Tampa Bay signed Josh McCown, and Lovie Smith says McCown definitely will be the team’s starting quarterback. It doesn’t sound like Smith has much interest in Mike Glennon.
Smith even said the Bucs might draft another quarterback.
Glennon, though, looks too good to be moved down into a No. 3 role. He was pretty darn good as a rookie. In the last 10 years, 30 rookie quarterbacks have attempted at least 100 passes. Only six of those guys had higher passer ratings than Glennon, and they’re all good pros – RG3, Wilson, Roethlisberger, Cutler, Ryan and Newton.
Glenn completed 59 percent of his passes, with 19 TDs and only 9 interceptions.
The game is changing, inflating numbers and making this kind of comparison less noteworthy. But I think Glennon is too good not to be Tampa Bay’s backup at the start of the season.
| HIGHEST RATED ROOKIE QUARTERBACKS | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Pct | TD | Int | Rate | |
| 2012 | Robert Griffin III | 65.6% | 20 | 5 | 102.4 |
| 2012 | Russell Wilson | 64.1% | 26 | 10 | 100.0 |
| 2004 | Ben Roethlisberger | 66.4% | 17 | 11 | 98.1 |
| 2006 | Jay Cutler | 59.1% | 9 | 5 | 88.5 |
| 2008 | Matt Ryan | 61.1% | 16 | 11 | 87.7 |
| 2011 | Cam Newton | 60.0% | 21 | 17 | 84.5 |
| 2013 | Mike Glennon | 59.4% | 19 | 9 | 83.9 |
| 2012 | Nick Foles | 63.1% | 6 | 5 | 82.1 |
| 2011 | Andy Dalton | 58.1% | 20 | 13 | 80.4 |
| 2008 | Joe Flacco | 60.0% | 14 | 12 | 80.3 |
| 2013 | EJ Manuel | 58.8% | 11 | 9 | 77.7 |
| 2012 | Andrew Luck | 54.1% | 23 | 18 | 76.5 |
| 2010 | Sam Bradford | 60.0% | 18 | 15 | 76.5 |
| 2012 | Ryan Tannehill | 58.3% | 12 | 13 | 76.1 |
| 2010 | Colt McCoy | 60.8% | 6 | 9 | 74.5 |
| 2006 | Matt Leinart | 56.8% | 11 | 12 | 74.0 |
| 2012 | Brandon Weeden | 57.4% | 14 | 17 | 72.6 |
| 2007 | Trent Edwards | 56.1% | 7 | 8 | 70.4 |
| 2005 | Charlie Frye | 59.8% | 4 | 6 | 70.2 |
| 2011 | Christian Ponder | 54.3% | 13 | 13 | 70.1 |
| 2006 | Vince Young | 51.5% | 12 | 13 | 66.7 |
| 2013 | Geno Smith | 55.8% | 12 | 21 | 66.5 |
| 2011 | Blaine Gabbert | 50.8% | 12 | 11 | 65.4 |
| 2009 | Mark Sanchez | 53.8% | 12 | 20 | 63.0 |
| 2009 | Matthew Stafford | 53.3% | 13 | 20 | 61.0 |
| 2009 | Josh Freeman | 54.5% | 10 | 18 | 59.8 |
| 2010 | Jimmy Clausen | 52.5% | 3 | 9 | 58.4 |
| 2004 | Eli Manning | 48.2% | 6 | 9 | 55.4 |
| 2007 | John Beck | 56.1% | 1 | 6 | 50.3 |
| 2005 | Alex Smith | 50.9% | 1 | 11 | 40.8 |
—Ian Allan