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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have moved on from Josh Freeman and Mike Glennon is now their starter. With one of the worst passing offenses in the NFL, it can't get much worse than it was, but we can't expect much improvement, either. Many of the issues with the offense as a whole remain, and Mike Glennon will need better support than Josh Freeman received.
The Bucs won't ask Mike Glennon to do much in his first game, however. General manager Mark Dominik said that the Buccaneers would try to win the game with Glennon as a game manager. Can Glennon do that when both Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams are hobbled and might not even play, though? That seems exceedingly unlikely, especially given the fact that he's facing a pretty good Cardinals defense that will do everything it can to confuse the rookie.
One big issue for Glennon will be the speed of the game. That's always a problem for rookie quarterbacks, but Glennon's biggest problem in the preseason was the speed of his play. He was slow on his dropbacks and tended to be late on his throws. Glennon has decent arm strength, but he needs a good pocket to step up into to get the most out of his arm and won't be able to compensate for his slow play speed.
That slow speed will lead to sacks, and sacks lead to fumbles. That's what you can expect to see, more so than interceptions. Glennon isn't a careless thrower and he tends to eat sacks rather than throw the ball up for grabs -- but with a multiple 3-4 defense facing him, he could certainly make a few big mistakes.
The Bucs will run the ball today. They'll look to Doug Martin to carry the football and carry that team. Glennon won't be asked to throw much, unless the Bucs get down by a lot of points -- and given the Bucs' defense, that's not too likely to happen. Mike Glennon is a game manager today, and the Bucs hope that's good enough to win the game.