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*Each week during the offseason, Senior Writer/Editor Scott Smith will dip into the inbox to answer questions from Buccaneer fans. This week, we have quite a mix of topics, touching on Mike Glennon, available NFL free agents, fantasy football and more.
Fans can submit questions for upcoming mailbags via Twitter to @ScottSBucs (#BucsMailbag), through a message on the Buccaneers Official Facebook Page or via email at *tbbsocial@buccaneers.nfl.com*. The One Buc Mailbag runs every Thursday and is not necessarily meant to reflect the opinions of the team's management or coaching staff.
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1. Dear Scott/Rodger and Casey, Q1:If Mike Glennon performs well in the pre season and in camp, do you think there is any way he will start?Q2:What is an unknown fact about anybody on the Bucs coaching staff or roster?Q3:What is the likehood of the Bucs signing a veteran out of free agents (Vick, Jake Long, etc)?Thanks for considering my questions, please pick mine! -Reed, via email to tbbsocial@buccaneers.nfl.comYou're welcome, Reed, but let's get one thing straight first: There is no "d" in Rodger. I mean, I'm sure SOME people spell it that way, but they are wrong. That's what leads to "Rodger the Dodger," which nobody needs. This is what I get, I suppose, for revealing my real first name in a video mailbag this spring.
(Although, come to think of it, the only player I can think of with that name in the NFL right now is Rodger Saffold, so…let's just move on to your questions.)
Alright, question #1, is there any way Mike Glennon starts? Yes, of course. I'm not saying it's the expected outcome, or even necessarily the outcome for which the team's decision-makers are hoping. When you use the first-overall draft pick on a quarterback, as the Bucs did with Jameis Winston in April, you are planning for him to be in the starting lineup for a long time, and you'd prefer that tenure started right away. So I think it's likely that Winston is on the field on opening day in September.
But we can't simply ignore the competition at that spot. The Buccaneers' coaching staff spent the offseason program splitting first-team reps between Winston and Glennon. What's the point of that if you aren't in the midst of a long-term evaluation of those two in regards to which one is the best option on opening day? If Glennon significantly outperforms Winston in training camp and the preseason games, I fully believe that Lovie Smith would be willing to start the season with the third-year QB out of NC State.
Smith, like roughly 100% of NFL coaches ever, always insist that there is competition at every spot on the depth chart. He doesn't just spout it as a blind cliché, however; sometimes he'll concede that there are certain players – say, Gerald McCoy or Lavonte David – who are relative locks to win those competitions. At other places, like safety or running back, it's equally clear that the competition is wide open. I would put this year's quarterback competition somewhere in between those two ends of the spectrum, and probably a little closer to the former situation. The job is probably Winston's to lose, but Mike Glennon is going to do his best to win it.
Question #2 is pretty open-ended. How "unknown" are we talking about? I mean, do the majority of Buc fans know that defensive tackle Henry Melton was actually a running back for the first half of his college career? Or that undrafted rookie defensive end Jamal Young is a former college sprinter who later played football at Jones County Junior College under none other than Ray Perkins, the former Buccaneers head coach?
Those are the kinds of obscure notes that might not be obscure to everyone because they've been noted before here on Buccaneers.com, among other places. To be safe, I probably need to come up with something that few outside this building would be likely to know, no matter how big of Buccaneer fans they might be.
And for that the obvious place to go is Mr. Obscurity himself, Ali Marpet. Now, let me be clear: I say that only because, a couple months ago, Marpet became the first player drafted out of a DIII school (Hobart) since 1996. At this point, he's anything but obscure to Buccaneer fans, and is hopefully going to be less and less so around the league in the coming years. In addition, as you'll see, he comes from a family that's anything but obscure.
In fact, both of Marpet's parents are successful artists, suggesting that Ali probably had some other talents he could have pursued had he not blossomed from an undersized lineman to an actual NFL prospect in college. His father, Bill, currently produces fashion videos in NYC and has won an Emmy as a videographer. His mother, Joy Rose, is a musician who had a hit on the dance charts in the 1980s. Ali also has a trio of siblings (Blaze, Brody and Zena) with eclectic pursuits ranging from nursing to ancient Greek philosophy.
Now, I'm not going to lie. All of this information is readily available on Wikipedia. However, I'm going to assume that the majority of Buccaneer fans haven't studied that Wikipedia page yet and thus had no idea how interesting Ali Marpet's family is.
As for question #3, regarding how likely the Buccaneers are to sign any of the remaining unrestricted free agents, I would say: Not likely.
You mention two specific examples, but I would be surprised if either one ends up in a Buccaneer uniform. Michael Vick is obviously the highest-profile quarterback still sitting out there, and there may be some who think Tampa Bay needs a "veteran mentor" for Winston. We've covered this before in a previous video mailbag, so I'm repeating myself when I say that this seems more like an attractive concept than a practical reality right now. One, Mike Glennon has 19 starts in two seasons and is both a good resource and a willing helper for Winston (even while, as noted above, he's also trying to win the job). And Vick isn't necessarily the first quarterback you think of for that mentoring type of role.
The reason that tackle Jake Long is available, of course, is that he's coming off his second season-ending ACL injury in as many seasons. Assuming that he can prove he's healthy enough to play this year, it's highly likely that some team will give him a shot this summer. Maybe the Buccaneers would have been among the interested clubs before the draft, but the selection of Donovan Smith at #34 overall changed that. The plan is for Smith to step right in at left tackle; there's no guarantee that plan will work and the Bucs could have to turn to Kevin Pamphile or Patrick Omameh, but the team is confident Smith can handle the job.
Who else remains? Jermaine Gresham? The Bucs are quite deep at tight end already. Pierre Thomas or Ahmad Bradshaw? Ditto at running back. Justin Blalock decided to retire in mid-June, so he's no longer available for interior-line help. Honestly, Reed, I don't see anybody on the list of remaining free agents that is likely to pique the Bucs' interest.
2. Supplemental Gains?
By the time this mailbag gets posted, the Supplemental Draft might be over. It was due to start at 1:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, and since it's basically conducted behind closed doors, with teams submitting closed bids, it's not clear when it will end. If every team submits a blank sheet, it could be over by 1:01.
So it's possible I will have been proved right or wrong before this even hits the site, but I seriously doubt the Buccaneers will be making any picks in this year's Supplemental Draft. I'm playing the odds here: Tampa Bay has only dipped into the Supplemental Draft pool once since it was instituted in 1987, and that was way back in 1987. As I pointed out on Wednesday, that pick of Miami defensive tackle Dan Sileo didn't really work out.
There are some who believe that Clemson tackle Isaiah Battle has a good chance to be the first player selected by any team in the Supplemental Draft since 2012. However, he's not likely to be the first drafted with a first-round pick in 24 years (since QB Dave Brown by the Giants in 1992), so far that it's a guessing game by interested clubs as to how high of a pick to bid. I doubt the Buccaneers are one of the (hypothetical) teams thinking about putting in a bid for Battle, but even if they are they wouldn't necessarily get him. Remember, any pick you use in this draft is forfeited in the regular draft next year. I suspect General Manager Jason Licht values draft picks too much to roll the dice with any first or second-day selection. If the Buccaneers were to go fishing with a sixth or seventh-round pick, it only takes one team to like Battle more than that to render Tampa Bay's bid moot.
3. Hey Scott,
In a Mail Bag a couple weeks ago you talked about sleepers for the Bucs in fantasy football. You said ASJ and you also mentioned the Bucs' defense, but what about leagues with IDP. I think Lanasnah could be a really big sleeper. I'm in an IDP league and I'm going to take him at the end of the draft…he had four picks last year and two touchdowns! What do you think? Did you miss the biggest sleeper there? Thanks for answering my question (if you do!) – Pete, via email to tbbsocial@buccaneers.nfl.com
Pete is referring to this mailbag from June 25, in which I did indeed land on Austin Seferian-Jenkins as the Bucs' best fantasy football sleeper. On ESPN.com, he's ranked 17th among tight ends, and I think he's primed for a breakout season. Considering that a good number of fantasy owners don't bother to carry a backup tight end, there's a good chance that ASJ goes undrafted in some of your leagues. Take him near the end of your draft as your second tight end, especially if you didn't use an early pick on Gronk or Graham, and you could end up with ASJ as your starter before long.
But Pete here thinks there's a bigger sleeper on the roster in linebacker Danny Lansanah. Before I get into the issue of IDP leagues, let me defend myself by saying that I considered Seferian-Jenkins the most practical sleeper. Sure, Bobby Rainey could emerge as a fantasy asset if there are issues of injury or ineffectiveness with Doug Martin and Charles Sims, but you're not going to be banking on that happening during your draft. Thus, I wouldn't call Rainey a sleeper at this point. And since we don't yet know what Lansanah's role will be in the defense, that's a tough call to make, too.
I also have to admit that I didn't even think about IDP when I was answering the original question. I've personally never played in a league with individual defensive players, so I guess that was a blind spot for me. I'm not sure if there's some overarching strategy for picking IDPs, but I'm looking at the rankings on ESPN.com and J.J. Watt is at the top, so I guess sacks are big. Actually, Luke Kuechly and Lavonte David (yay!) are ranked second and third, so consistent game-by-game tackle totals must be very appealing.
Gerald McCoy comes in at #54, and then there's another Buc at #57 in linebacker Bruce Carter. I actually think that's a note in your favor, Pete. I assume Carter is there because he led all NFL linebackers in interceptions last year. Lansanah was second. If Lansanah wins the starting strongside linebacker spot – a distinct possibility in my mind – he might be worth a look as a sleeper due to his big-play ability. The one problem there would be that the SAM linebacker is the one who usually comes off the field in nickel packages, so he might only play 50-60% of the snaps.
Still, that ESPN.com ranking lists 150 players and Lansanah isn't on it. Going back to what I said about Rainey, to me that takes Lansanah out of the sleeper realm. I consider a sleeper somebody you might actually draft who could produce well above his expected value.
