The Buccaneers should hang on to Mike Glennon

Mike Glennon should remain a Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback going into the 2015 - 16 season.  First, let us compare Glennon with current starter Josh McCown.

Glennon has better production in five and half games played than McCown has in his ten and a half games. Across the board, Glennon is better than veteran McCown, who was handpicked to be the starter for the Bucs' offense in 2014 season by new head coach, Lovie Smith.

Let us introduce the stats on a game by game basis. Josh fell to injury in the first Atlanta game and returned to start against the second Atlanta game. Therefore, Glennon started games in between the Atlanta games, so you can see the breakdown.

From this new chart, which breaks down the QB comparison by game, Glennon helped the offense produce the two highest scoring output in all sixteen games, 27 points against Pittsburgh and 24 points against New Orleans. In the five games started by Glennon, he helped the offense win one game in a come from behind fashion in the fourth quarter and had leads in fourth quarter three other times.

To add further clarity, I simplified the chart by taking the average of their productions for the year, based upon the aforementioned chart.

Recall Lovie Smith saying in a post game press conference after being beaten by St. Louis that his offense needed to find a way to find an extra play somehow as it may affect the game. Granted the team only won two games total, but a Glennon lead offense was able to generate one extra play per game. Also, a Glennon-led offense put up five extra points per game, on average. (Actually, those numbers would be a little bit worse for McCown and better for Glennon as I did not separate the stats for the first Atlanta game where the lone long drive and lone touchdown came in the second half with Glennon under center.)

Reviewing those stats should make one wonder why Lovie never reinserted Glennon back under center, even when the season was lost in the last couple of games. It is akin to Lovie not wanting former Bucs' offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford to return to duty in the latter half of the season when he was cleared medically to return. Lovie kept McCown on the field even though the numbers point to Glennon being an improvement, nor did Lovie allow Glennon any on field time when the season was already a foregone conclusion to be heading nowhere.

There is one more chart in this quarterback comparison to take into context:

Contractually, Glennon is cheaper as well as under contract for two more seasons. Whereas McCown is set to be a free agent after this season, but also is set to make $5.25 million. McCown is only guaranteed $4.75 million on his two year contract and can be cut without penalties this offseason.

The reason to get rid of McCown is because the number one pick overall last year was set to make $22.272 million for four years, or an average of $5.568 million per season. I presume the Bucs' organization is set upon a quarterback with the first overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft. After revealing how inept McCown was last year compared to Glennon, the organization would best be served by cutting ties with McCown and his salary so it can be used elsewhere effectively.

Holding onto Glennon for next year and getting rid of McCown is how this organization can trim the fat and improve itself.