The Bucs signed Josh McCown last month, and new coach Lovie Smith indicated McCown was signed to be the team's starting quarterback. But last year's rookie starter Mike Glennon doesn't believe that's cast in stone, and it makes sense to think he will in fact get the chance to beat out McCown.
It's worth noting that before compiling a quarterback rating of 109.0 in eight games for the Marc Trestman-coached Chicago Bears last year, McCown had struggled to a sub-75.0 quarterback rating in each of his previous NFL seasons. From 2008-2012, he started only 2 games -- for the Bears, coached at the time by Smith. He threw 4 interceptions and took 7 sacks in those games.
Should anyone really assume he'll beat out Glennon in the preseason just because of last year's success working with Trestman?
In contrast, Glennon's rookie season was one of the better ones by a rookie quarterback in the last 10 years. Only six have posted higher quarterback ratings in their rookie seasons than he has.
A table Ian Allan recently compiled showing the highest-rated rookie quarterbacks over the last decade is presented below.
HIGHEST RATED ROOKIE QUARTERBACKS | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Pct | TD | Int | Rate | |
2012 | Robert Griffin III | 65.6% | 20 | 5 | 102.4 |
2012 | Russell Wilson | 64.1% | 26 | 10 | 100.0 |
2004 | Ben Roethlisberger | 66.4% | 17 | 11 | 98.1 |
2006 | Jay Cutler | 59.1% | 9 | 5 | 88.5 |
2008 | Matt Ryan | 61.1% | 16 | 11 | 87.7 |
2011 | Cam Newton | 60.0% | 21 | 17 | 84.5 |
2013 | Mike Glennon | 59.4% | 19 | 9 | 83.9 |
2012 | Nick Foles | 63.1% | 6 | 5 | 82.1 |
2011 | Andy Dalton | 58.1% | 20 | 13 | 80.4 |
2008 | Joe Flacco | 60.0% | 14 | 12 | 80.3 |
2013 | EJ Manuel | 58.8% | 11 | 9 | 77.7 |
2012 | Andrew Luck | 54.1% | 23 | 18 | 76.5 |
2010 | Sam Bradford | 60.0% | 18 | 15 | 76.5 |
2012 | Ryan Tannehill | 58.3% | 12 | 13 | 76.1 |
2010 | Colt McCoy | 60.8% | 6 | 9 | 74.5 |
2006 | Matt Leinart | 56.8% | 11 | 12 | 74.0 |
2012 | Brandon Weeden | 57.4% | 14 | 17 | 72.6 |
2007 | Trent Edwards | 56.1% | 7 | 8 | 70.4 |
2005 | Charlie Frye | 59.8% | 4 | 6 | 70.2 |
2011 | Christian Ponder | 54.3% | 13 | 13 | 70.1 |
2006 | Vince Young | 51.5% | 12 | 13 | 66.7 |
2013 | Geno Smith | 55.8% | 12 | 21 | 66.5 |
2011 | Blaine Gabbert | 50.8% | 12 | 11 | 65.4 |
2009 | Mark Sanchez | 53.8% | 12 | 20 | 63.0 |
2009 | Matthew Stafford | 53.3% | 13 | 20 | 61.0 |
2009 | Josh Freeman | 54.5% | 10 | 18 | 59.8 |
2010 | Jimmy Clausen | 52.5% | 3 | 9 | 58.4 |
2004 | Eli Manning | 48.2% | 6 | 9 | 55.4 |
2007 | John Beck | 56.1% | 1 | 6 | 50.3 |
2005 | Alex Smith | 50.9% | 1 | 11 | 40.8 |
--Andy Richardson