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Pro Football Focus is going through lots and lots of interesting quarterback statistics, and the latest installment in their series focuses on pressure and blitzes. They pull out the good old "Josh McCown was awesome in 2013" card.
Anyone surprised to see Josh McCown lead the league in most major categories under pressure? He topped the league in PFF Grade (+8.9), QB Rating (112.2), Accuracy Percentage (79.7%), and yards per attempt (8.6).
Meanwhile, Mike Glennon was horrible under pressure, and one of the worst players in the NFL against the blitz, by Pro Football Focus' reckoning, anyway.
None of this should be news to anyone. Leo highlighted those differences in an article last week. But they're pretty interesting in light of the problems the Bucs are facing across the offensive line, especially at the offensive guard position. Unless Carl Nicks returns, they're probably going to get a year of poor play at either left or right guard -- and that means pressure in the quarterback's face. That, in turn, demands a quarterback who has at least demonstrated the ability to produce under pressure.
McCown has demonstrated that ability. Mike Glennon has not. That doesn't mean Josh McCown is certain to continue to do that, nor is Mike Glennon incapable of learning to handle pressure. A quarterback's ability is not static, but a process throughout his career.
The nasty thing for Glennon is that the Bucs can't properly evaluate his progress in reacting to pressure during the offseason, or even during preseason. The conditions he'll face in those situations simply won't be analogous to NFL game days, and he won't really get the opportunity to demonstrate an improvement in pocket presence (if any).
That, in turn, means that if this is the deciding factor for the Bucs, Glennon has no shot of winning that quarterback battle in training camp. In other words: if we're going to see Mike Glennon start a game this year, that will be because something catastrophic happened to Josh McCown.