Another Statistical Oddity from Mike Glennon May Reveal His Biggest Issue: His CoachesBy Leo Howell - Dec 16th, 2013 at 10:36 am
Dec 15, 2013; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Mike Glennon #8 throws the ball against the San Francisco 49ers during the first quarter at Raymond James Stadium. Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports Quarterbacks are incredibly tough to evaluate, even for NFL teams. That’s why Josh Freeman was still hanging around until his fifth year in Tampa Bay, when the wheels officially fell off. It’s also why Philip Rivers is flourishing as a veteran after struggling for a few years, while his fellow draft-classmate Eli Manning is having his worst year after a few years of success. Ultimately, quarterbacks are unique in their ability to impact every other player on their team with their play, but also be impacted by the play of the teammates and the gameplan of their coaches. It’s the coaching that has helped Rivers to come alive after a few years of poor play, and it’s the teammates that may be holding back Eli from his usual form. So how do we evaluate Mike Glennon? The first-year quarterback for the Buccaneers seems to be all over the place, occasionally looking like a very poised pocket passer that could rival Matt Ryan in terms of managing an offense and making good throws. But then, at times, he seems to be working in slow motion and doesn’t give any appearance of being a starting NFL quarterback. 
Aug 29, 2013; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Greg Schiano (left) talks with offensive coorenator Mike Sullivan prior to the game at Raymond James Stadium. Kim Klement-USA TODAY SportsSunday’s game was yet another example of Glennon’s bi-polar play, but it sheds some light on why he may struggle at times, and flourish at others. As I wrote on Sunday, Glennon completed 87 percent of his passes with a 9.7 yards per attempt average while scoring two touchdowns with no interceptions on the Buccaneers’ two scoring drives against the 49ers. On the other nine drives, he was 5-of-19 for 44 yards and an interception. And my hypothesis is that this discrepancy reveals the problem for Glennon may be coaching as much as it is his own inconsistencies. When the Buccaneers were in the no-huddle for the majority of their two scoring drives, Glennon was in the shotgun and making short-to-intermediate throws to receivers who were getting open on quick routes. That’s in sharp contrast to the usual Mike Sullivan-called offense, which lines up in the I-formation and runs deep routes that depend on pinpoint sideline throws and plenty of time in the pocket from the offensive line. So it’s no surprise that when the offense dictates that Sullivan’s gameplan must change, and the tempo must increase, the Buccaneers did much better on offense. The typical Sullivan offense is very boom or bust, and on Sunday, it was all bust. That’s because Mike Glennon isn’t an uber-confident gunslinger in the pocket who will stand in until he gets whacked by a defender and throw up a bullet at Vincent Jackson 35 yards downfield. That was Josh Freeman. Glennon is more under control with his actions, and doesn’t take a ton of chances. He might be a bit too hesitant, but that careful approach has helped him limit turnovers. But he’s certainly not the confident signal caller to stand like a statue while getting hammered by Aldon Smith just to throw a 25-yard back shoulder fade to Skye Dawson on third and three. But when Glennon was in the no-huddle, he got to quickly make his reads and find the open man while marching the team down the field. He seemed like a different quarterback, and that’s because the playcalling was allowing him to. The point of this article isn’t to say that the Buccaneers should have run more no-huddle offense, nor is is advocating that they run more no-huddle in the future. Instead, it’s yet another apparent failure by the coaching staff in Tampa Bay to get the most out of their players. Whether it’s the three months it took to start moving Gerald McCoy around to get him better matchups to the questionable pass coverage calls early in the season, this coaching staff has repeatedly seemed stubborn and unwilling to make needed changes. Sunday’s offensive performance is just further proof. Fire Greg Schiano. http://thepewterplank.com/2013/12/16/another-statistical-oddity-mike-glennon-may-reveal-biggest-issue-coaches/
I've commented on this, not to this detail but the general point. Sully's offense is outdated and slow. Sully's offense requires reads and re-routes mid play which do a couple things, they require thinking which slows the players down, the require additional time in the pocket and they require the QB and WR to make the see and read the same thing EVERY PLAY. In a NFL that is more and more based on speed and exploiting match ups, anything that slows the players down is a bad thing. I don't care who is OC, but we need to scrap that crap and clean up the reads for Mike. Have guys run a route with fewer option type routes. Let him read it and move on if it's not open. For gods sake, watching Mike on those two drives was absolutely amazing. You want to sit here and tell me we can't win with an offense like that. Let him take what's open, give our guy a chance on a 3 yard pass, see if he can turn it into something else. The boom and bust crap doesn't work, it creates big plays or 3rd and long and against top defenses its more 3rd and long.This offense creates muddied reads for Mike which slows him down, other offense create space with easier reads, let's do that. Let's make it easier on ourselves.
The one thing I noticed late in Sunday's game was it seemed that Glennon was playing flat footed. There were times I thought it was a designed run play and then he's throwing it. It seemed odd to me.
Probably because he was frustrated at the play-calls coming in
I'm sure the predictable playcalling has done worlds to help Glennons growth. I mean who could possibly predict a dive up the middle every first down!
Well toss in "rookie" and you get a lot of boom or bust but the offense is a high risk high reward thing. This is never going to be an efficient offense for anyone.
I've commented on this, not to this detail but the general point. Sully's offense is outdated and slow. Sully's offense requires reads and re-routes mid play which do a couple things, they require thinking which slows the players down, the require additional time in the pocket and they require the QB and WR to make the see and read the same thing EVERY PLAY. In a NFL that is more and more based on speed and exploiting match ups, anything that slows the players down is a bad thing. I don't care who is OC, but we need to scrap that crap and clean up the reads for Mike. Have guys run a route with fewer option type routes. Let him read it and move on if it's not open. For gods sake, watching Mike on those two drives was absolutely amazing. You want to sit here and tell me we can't win with an offense like that. Let him take what's open, give our guy a chance on a 3 yard pass, see if he can turn it into something else. The boom and bust crap doesn't work, it creates big plays or 3rd and long and against top defenses its more 3rd and long.This offense creates muddied reads for Mike which slows him down, other offense create space with easier reads, let's do that. Let's make it easier on ourselves.
This is what Steve White Greg Cosell, Doug Farrar, and other commenters were saying before Glennon even started playing.
Freeman was much better in the hurry up offense as well. Freeman actually won games with the hurry up offense.
How did Sully's offense break all time Buccaneer franchise records last year, but now it's all Sully and his offense sucks? I mean, we were the #1 offense in the league last year for 5 or 6 weeks straight and finished 9th overall. How does that happen with garbage can Freeman at the helm, and now we can't get a 1st down in the 2nd half of most games? I won't pretend to know the answer, but I doubt it is as simple as Sully sucks.
How did Sully's offense break all time Buccaneer franchise records last year, but now it's all Sully and his offense sucks? I mean, we were the #1 offense in the league last year for 5 or 6 weeks straight and finished 9th overall. How does that happen with garbage can Freeman at the helm, and now we can't get a 1st down in the 2nd half of most games? I won't pretend to know the answer, but I doubt it is as simple as Sully sucks.
We went through a streak where Doug Martin was on fire and our WR duo was catching the jump balls. Pretty easy to explain. It wasn't because of our superior scheming that's for sure.
How did Sully's offense break all time Buccaneer franchise records last year, but now it's all Sully and his offense sucks? I mean, we were the #1 offense in the league last year for 5 or 6 weeks straight and finished 9th overall. How does that happen with garbage can Freeman at the helm, and now we can't get a 1st down in the 2nd half of most games? I won't pretend to know the answer, but I doubt it is as simple as Sully sucks.
Why do people keep talking about those records as if they were some amazing feat? You weren't even a Freepologist.Those records are unimpressive. Lets put it in a perspective that you can see how weak they were: Mike Glennon's stats right now project to the same number of TDs as Josh threw last year, with about half the interceptions. The only difference is the yardage. And if Glennon does it it has to suck, right?We could have gotten more out of the offense last year if Freeman played better. We could get more out of the offense if Glennon was playing better. It was clear last year and this, that Josh was NOT capable of playing better, no matter what changes to the scheme we made. Whatever he once may have become, he sabotaged himself before he sabotaged the teamIt is clear this year that Glennon IS capable of playing better, if we adjust the scheme a bit. Over the last three games we changed what we were doing with somewhat more success shortly before. When we move back towards a faster pace with Glennon getting it out shorter and quicker, we have much more success. Naturally then, we aren't going to do that though.
I think it's because of Freeman-Jackson. Freeman threw up a lot of jump balls and Jackson won a good bunch of those. The OL took 10 weeks to get out of pre season mode this year which could explain it to some degree. I certainly don't have all the answers either.
How did Sully's offense break all time Buccaneer franchise records last year, but now it's all Sully and his offense sucks? I mean, we were the #1 offense in the league last year for 5 or 6 weeks straight and finished 9th overall. How does that happen with garbage can Freeman at the helm, and now we can't get a 1st down in the 2nd half of most games? I won't pretend to know the answer, but I doubt it is as simple as Sully sucks.
Why do people keep talking about those records as if they were some amazing feat? You weren't even a Freepologist.Those records are unimpressive. Lets put it in a perspective that you can see how weak they were: Mike Glennon's stats right now project to the same number of TDs as Josh threw last year, with about half the interceptions. The only difference is the yardage. And if Glennon does it it has to suck, right?We could have gotten more out of the offense last year if Freeman played better. We could get more out of the offense if Glennon was playing better. It was clear last year and this, that Josh was NOT capable of playing better, no matter what changes to the scheme we made. Whatever he once may have become, he sabotaged himself before he sabotaged the teamIt is clear this year that Glennon IS capable of playing better, if we adjust the scheme a bit. Over the last three games we changed what we were doing with somewhat more success shortly before. When we move back towards a faster pace with Glennon getting it out shorter and quicker, we have much more success. Naturally then, we aren't going to do that though.
I have to disagree about Freeman. He was also much better in the hurry up offense. Several of us were calling for more hurry up way before this coaching staff even got here.
That is true GA.
Yup, Freeman was much more efficient in the no huddle too.Sully's/Schiano's offense sucks. Sully said the first week after Glennon started that they were going to give him a basic version of the offense and give him more of it as the season went on. Now, that the Glennon has been given the whole offense, he isn't playing as well because it's just a shitty offense. People have been calling out the flaws of the offensive scheme for a while now.