Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Raheem Morris informed his team this morning that Byron Leftwich beat out Luke McCown for the starting quarterback job, FOXSports.com has learned.
Play FOX Fantasy Football for Free!The move does not come as a surprise as Leftwich had been the odds-on favorite.
However after early performances by Leftwich, 29, and fellow veteran Luke McCown, Morris decided to wait one more preseason game for one of the quarterbacks to clearly take the job or clearly stumble.
If you have been following any of my posts on the subject its probably apparent that I disagree with this decision. It is not that I don't believe that Leftwich is a good quarterback. In fact I think he has one of the biggest arms in the league. But just in terms of philosphy, I do not believe you can win with an immobile quarterback in the NFL anymore. If you look around the league right now how many true pocket passers are starters? Id give you maybe 5 guys out of 32 who could possibly be as slow as Leftwich. And out of those 5 every single guy has a wicked quick delivery. Lefwich, on the other hand, compounds his lack of foot speed with a big, slow windup of a delivery on his throws.
Now when he has time and there is a deep route open fans are going to love Leftwich. However, starting with the first game and Demarcus Ware coming in here, when the opposition has a great pass rush it is not going to be a good look.
The question that remains is if they will keep Luke McCown on as a number two or if they jettison him and elevate heir apparent to the position, rookie first round pick Josh Freeman, to the role of back up. This is going to be a huge decision because I can't remember the last time Leftwich went through a full season without missing sometime due to injury. And as much as I don't agree with the decision of Leftwich to be the starter, you can cancel Christmas if Freeman has to start any games this year. It is what it is.
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