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One big blow for those hoping the Tampa Bay Buccaneers select a quarterback in the 2014 NFL draft: Marcus Mariota announced today that he will return to the Oregon Ducks for his redshirt junior season next year, via NFL.com. Mariota could still change his mind before the deadline to enter the draft in January, but that seems rather unlikely at this point.
Teddy Bridgewater is the consensus top quarterback prospect in the upcoming draft, but Mariota was generally seen as the number two quarterback. With him off the board, Derek Carr appears to be the strongest prospect behind Bridgewater, although a few other juniors and redshirt sophomores could enter the draft and change that. Blake Bortles of UCF and Brett Hundley of UCLA are two such highly thought-of quarterbacks.
None of this will be all too relevant for the Bucs if they choose to stick with Mike Glennon, who had a very poor game this past Sunday but looked promising the two weeks before. Possible regime changes will have a big effect on that decision as well. For now, there's one less prospect at the top of the draft.
