Mike Glennon Start Shows Bucs Trying To Shake Things Up

Mike Glennon was not drafted to be an immediate starter, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers weren’t planning on falling on hard times so quickly.

A slow start to the season and growing discontent with starter Josh Freeman has prompted the Bucs to turn to the third-round rookie Glennon on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.

Bucs coach Greg Schiano said the decision was an attempt to shake things up.

“This was a performance-based decision, and the fact of the matter is we were not getting the job done on the field,” Schiano said. “We’ve lost eight of nine games and haven’t played particularly well on offense in the last nine games. That’s something, although it’s not completely the quarterback’s fault, I understand that, that position touches the ball every play.”

Schiano said Freeman took the benching with class, but reports point to a growing rift between him and the team. Before his benching, the quarterback had already missed team picture day in the summer and showed up late to his own quarterback camp.

There are now reports that Freeman wants a trade, and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport spoke with two league general managers to determine if there would be interest. The consensus appeared to be that teams would only be interested if they lost a starter to injury.

But Schiano and the Bucs needed some kind of change, and see Mike Glennon as their best chance. The team is off to an 0-3 start, including two last-second losses on field goals. Freeman completed less than 50 percent of his passes in all three games.

With a bye week coming up after the team’s home game against the Cardinals, Schiano thought it was the perfect time for a change.

“It is beneficial I think in the fact that Mike will get to play a game, and then have a bye week to really decipher through it and learn from the experience before he has to play his next game,” Schiano said. “That’s a side benefit of the decision, but it wasn’t by any means the reason it was made now. We felt at this time that Mike Glennon gives us the best chance to win, and that’s why we did it.”

In a draft light on quarterbacks, Mike Glennon was considered by most to be a project. Taken in the third round, the former N.C. State quarterback was the third quarterback picked behind EJ Manuel and Geno Smith, who are both starting.