Lovie Smith spoke glowingly about quarterback Mike Glennon during his introductory press conference with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
While Smith still praised Glennon's strong arm and hard work, the coach said Thursday that if a franchise signal-caller fell to the Bucs at No. 7 in May's draft, they would pounce.
"I know enough about that draft to know, yeah, there's someone that would be worthy of the seventh pick because everything is on the board right now," Smith told the Tampa Bay Times at the NFL Scouting Combine. "Whenever you have a chance to get a franchise quarterback, you have to consider that."
NFL Media draft analyst Mike Mayock ranked his pre-combine top-five quarterbacks in this order: Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel, Blake Bortles, Derek Carr and AJ McCarron.
Glennon went 4-9 as a starter in 2013 and showed some improvement as the season went on with his pocket presence and his deep-ball accuracy.
"Mike did some good things. But he did some good things as a rookie,'' Smith said. "To say right now that Mike is the answer, and he's our quarterback of the future, and we're going to build around him and give him a 20-year contract right now, you're not there."
The Bucs have just two quarterbacks on the roster, Glennon and Mike Kafka, and Smith said he wants to enter camp with four quarterbacks -- one likely being a veteran.
"You have a plan," Smith said. "But if you ask me do I think we can win games with Mike Glennon? I'm going to say, 'Yeah, we can win games with Mike Glennon.' If you ask me would you like to upgrade the position? I'm not running around the question. That's a yes, too.
"If you ask me, would you like a veteran? Yeah. Really, that's the case. It all has to go together. You have to look at what's available at other positions, too."
One of Smith's biggest downfalls in Chicago was an inability to get a productive offense, even under quarterback Jay Cutler. Smith brought former Cal coach Jeff Tedford to Tampa as his offensive coordinator to correct those past problems. It's likely any evaluation Smith passes on is based on Tedford's assessment.
On the latest edition of the "Around The League Podcast," the guys speculate on big names who could be cut, then talk offseason forecasts for the Packers and Raiders.
