The Buccaneers are undecided as to whether they'll reinstate Mike Glennon as their starting quarterback.
Here's what head coach Lovie Smith had to say on the matter Monday, via the Tampa Bay Times:
"Playing a player at a position that won't hurt our football team (or) win a football game, we'll always look at that," he said. "I hadn't made it that far, to even decide. We haven't even started looking at video from Carolina (Sunday's opponent) yet. We won't give up a game just to see to put a player in a situation like that.
"And I would like to think if there's a young player we haven't played, when you go through a 2-11 season, you would've looked at that option a little bit earlier. I don't think we have a lot of those situations around."
While it would be easy to quickly climb the soap box and shout for the coach to play the younger quarterback now that the Bucs are officially out of contention, it seems like Smith has already taken a vested interest in the youth movement down in Tampa Bay.
As Rick Stroud notes, Smith favored Charles Sims over Doug Martin at running back on Sunday. He also made sure Bradley McDougald got time at safety over a veteran among some other less noticeable maneuvers.
Going back to Glennon makes the most sense, though either move could be looked at as a potential investment in the future. Glennon could be low-round trade bait if he performs well, and Josh McCown could be looked at as a Matt Hasselbeck-type of mentor to whichever quarterback Tampa Bay selects atop the draft in 2015 (if they decide to go in that direction).
Either way, Smith can make a case for having his eyes beyond a dismal first season. But which quarterback he chooses down the stretch could be telling for different reasons.
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