NFL Trade Predictions: A mid-season Glennon trade?

ESPN ran a neat little 100 2016 NFL predictions feature a couple of days ago, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers showed up for two of those predictions, one involving each of their top two quarterbacks.

The first was that Jameis Winston would lead the NFL in passer rating and touchdowns -- in preseason. That's fairly unlikely, given the fact that well over 100 quarterbacks will be throwing passes during the preseason, and Winston shouldn't get a particularly large amount of playing time. It's also not particularly relevant, because who cares about preseason?

The second prediction is a lot more interesting, though. Here's Mike DiRocco making it:

34. Tony Romo will get hurt (again), giving Bucs QB Mike Glennon a lot of trade value. A desperate Jerry Jones will make Tampa GM Jason Licht an offer can't refuse for the fourth-year QB. -- Mike DiRocco

That's quite a prediction. The Bucs had talks with teams about trading Glennon before the draft, but those talks didn't go anywhere. Every team that could have been interested in Glennon used a draft pick on a quarterback, and apparently none of them were willing to give up the kind of pick the Bucs wanted for him. Glennon is just a one-year insurance policy for the Bucs at this point, though, and the farther they get into the season with Winston still healthy, the more attractive a trade will look. The alternative, after all, is allowing him to walk away in free agency.

There are a few reasons why this is highly unlikely, though. As noted above, every team that needed a quarterback, added one in the draft. They're a lot more likely to just play those backups than to trade for Glennon in case of emergency. More than that, trading for a quarterback in midseason is a terrible idea, because there's no time for the quarterback to get acclimated to and learn a new offense. That leads to hilariously terrible performances, as we saw when the Vikings picked up Josh Freeman in 2013 and the Raiders traded for Carson Palmer in 2011. A team would have to be truly desperate to trade for a quarterback in the middle of the season.

While it would be nice for the Bucs to get something in return for Glennon, that ship has almost certainly sailed.