Mike Glennon vs. Game Film: Cause for Cautious Optimism

When coming off your bye week, giving you two weeks to prepare for your next opponent, to face the worst-ranking defense in the NFL, scoring just 20 points is practically inexcusable; the fact that those 20 points represent the most the Bucs have scored in a game all year is just embarrassing. That low figure sees the Bucs tying with that high-powered Jaguar offense for the lowest season-high scores in the league, joining the Steelers, Raiders, Cardinals and Redskins as the only teams not to put up thirty points this year. Of those six teams, only the 3-3 Cardinals don't have a losing record, and the six teams have a combined 7-26 record in 2013. Hardly the most illustrious of companies for the Buccaneers to find themselves in.

Yet do not despair, Bucs fans; all is not quite lost yet. Well, the season clearly is lost, but there are still things to be gained this year - and finding out what exactly they have in Mike Glennon is one of the biggest things the team can learn this year. That paltry point score suggests that they may not have much in the third-round rookie - but the game film suggests otherwise.

First though, as we do every week, we've charted up each of Glennon's pass attempts from Sunday - which went a little something like this:

If you read through that chart, you might notice that there's a distinct change in how Glennon fared during the first 39 pass attempts, and from pass attempt #40 onwards - and that's not coincidental. For context, when Glennon threw pass attempt #40, the score was 28-20 to the Eagles, with under ten minutes left in the game. When the Bucs began their final possession - pass attempts #42 through #49 - the Eagles were 11 points ahead and there was 2:29 on the clock. With a rookie quarterback, it should be obvious what the Eagles defense did in that situation - send the house at him. For the second week in a row, Glennon's fundamentals went out the window the moment the defense started harassing him: his footwork made it look as if the Raymond James field was made out of treacle, he stopped going through his progression entirely, and made some really, really questionable decisions - particularly throwing the ball anyway when backing away from pressure, often right at the outstretched arms of the defensive linemen he's trying to back away from.

The unfortunate part is that those two final drives, which will no doubt be responsible for most people's takeaway from the game, belies what was actually a surprisingly good game from Glennon. He made mistakes - he was a third-round rookie for a reason, after all - but he showed the ability to correct those mistakes during the game, not having to wait to see it on film during the week (something he might be able to teach our coaching staff), in particular learning to escape the pocket before throwing the ball away to avoid further intentional grounding penalties, and keeping his eyes downfield when scrambling in the pocket (something he did on pass attempt #7, but corrected for pass attempts #20 and #34). That ability to quickly correct mistakes on the fly show an impressively mature side to the young quarterback, and one that should give Bucs fans a cautious sense of optimism over the kind of quarterback Glennon could potentially develop into - at least, as long as there isn't any pressure in his face (an issue that might have been highlighted on those final ten pass attempts, but created issues throughout the game when pressure got to him).

There is a lot to like about Glennon, and though I was a Glennon sceptic (and, for what it's worth, still think was a bit of a wasted pick based on the expected strength of the 2014 QB draft class), he makes some very, very nice throws throughout this game - none more so than pass attempt #32, which I wax lyrical about in the passing chart. When he has time, Glennon tends to deliver the ball with good placement, allowing receivers to catch the ball without having to break stride and putting them in position to make yardage after the catch - an attribute supplemented by Mike Sullivan utilising more crossing patterns and even a few recognisable passing concepts, something he failed to do through the first three weeks of the season. Of course, when the chips were down, Sullivan reverted to his usual gameplan - which plays to exactly none of Glennon's strengths.

What I mean by that is that Glennon's arm was clearly oversold when he was drafted. He simply doesn't have the arm to make the kind of deep throws that were a staple of this offense during the six-game stretch following last year's bye week that saw the team briefly lead the league in offense while going 4-1. If you're hoping Glennon can take the team back to that, I have bad news for you - he simply doesn't have the physical tools to do so, and that's something that simply can't be coached: you're either born with a cannon or you're not. The short and medium routes are absolutely in Glennon's wheelhouse, but once he's asked to make throws beyond 20 yards, he's being asked too much of. The deep ball accuracy simply isn't there; he doesn't have that deep ball touch to get the ball into the receivers' hands on deep routes in the middle of the field, overthrowing receivers by not being able to get that perfect arc that comes with a strong arm, while all his deep sideline throws have sailed out of bounds in both games he's played so far. Yes, he's a rookie, but this is an aspect of the game that is more natural than coachable, so it's not something that will improve much with time in the league. Glennon is what he is: a young quarterback who can't handle pressure, and sometimes makes questionable reads even with a clean pocket (as explained above, even though it was Underwood's fault that Glennon threw an interception, the coverage was tight enough that even if Underwood hadn't stopped his route I'm not at all comfortable saying that it's a completion either), but when given time will more often than not deliver the ball with good accuracy, shows the ability to move in the pocket and even pick up yardage with his feet (who knew Glennon had that little ace up his sleeve?), and as long as he's asked to keep nominally to short and medium routes, can absolutely start in this league.

Start, but not necessarily win. Glennon's two performances show nothing to suggest he can put a team on his back and win games on his own; if anything, Glennon's career trajectory might be better summed up with two words that not all Bucs fans will want to hear: "game manager". That's what Glennon will do for this team: he will take what he's given by the defense, more often than not make throws with good enough placement to prevent turnovers (beyond the odd rookie brain fart), and make sure things are ticking along just nicely. What I'm not convinced he can do is take the team on game-winning drives late in the fourth when the defense are sending the house and he has to make deeper throws to find the holes 20 yards away from him behind the blitzers. The question Buc fans need to ask themselves is whether or not they believe a game managing quarterback can win in today's NFL.

I will reiterate this, though: this offense is not the right offense for Glennon. He cannot have sustained success in this offensive scheme, it just doesn't play to Glennon's strengths and is built primarily around the kind of routes Glennon seems to naturally not have the tools to execute. However, he definitely took a step forward over the bye week, particularly in looking downfield more than he did against the Cardinals, where he spent far too often looking straight to his check down - and as a result his yards-per-attempt and yards-per-completion both went up marginally, and his longest completion through the air went from 14 yards to 21. If he continues to develop, then if the next head coach or offensive co-ordinator is from a west coast offense background *cough*Jay Gruden*cough*, Glennon might actually have put enough on tape to make him 'the guy', at least in that particular offense - which would allow the team to address other needs in the draft.

In all, this outing actually showed that Glennon could in the right system (and I cannot stress that enough) potentially be a viable long-term answer at the quarterback spot - the team may just need to adjust their expectations away from Matt Ryan and Russell Wilson, under whose college coaches Glennon played, and more towards the Andy Daltons and Ryan Tannehills of this world.

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