The Second-Tier QBs And Unusual Demand

February 18th, 2024

“Look, Mr. Glazer, we’re in terrible position.”

The NFL Network draft guru, Daniel Jeremiah, a former quarterback and NFL team scout, was talking last week about the top two tiers of quarterbacks that will be in April’s NFL Draft.

Tier 1 is well known. That’s Caleb Williams, Drake Maye and Jayden Daniels. The Bucs don’t have enough draft capital or desire to trade up for one of those guys, Joe believes.

One might think Tier 2 could be in striking distance for Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht, but that sounds unrealistic per Jeremiah, who has fantastic sources.

“The teams that I talk to — and really I shouldn’t say ‘teams, personnel executives, general managers, their personal opinons on these guys is all over the place. But there’s [J.J.] McCarthy teams, there’s [Michael] Penix teams, there’s Bo Nix teams,” Jeremiah told The Rich Eisen Show, referring to Tier 2 of potential franchise QBs in the 2024 draft. “So you’re looking at six quarterbacks right there. And we’re getting to pick No. 13 and I’ve got eight teams that could be potentially quarterback teams, which means don’t be shocked if we see an unprecedented run on these guys.”

For those who forgot, the Bucs hold the No. 26 overall pick in the draft. Jeremiah also identified potential QB-needy teams in the top-13 picks that have significant draft picks with which to trade up.

Again, Joe doesn’t think the Bucs are motivated to draft a QB. They love their Baker Mayfield, and scoring a top-6 QB in April might be out of their reach.

Plus, yearn for a rookie QB all you want, they’re still a gamble (see Bucs history). And Todd Bowles probably has zero interest whatsoever.

36 Responses to “The Second-Tier QBs And Unusual Demand”

  1. Buccaneer rick Says:

    This is depressing

  2. geno711 Says:

    The 2nd tier guys are just that. Does anyone think that
    Penix
    McCarthy
    or Nix

    will be good starting NFL quarterbacks and worth a 1st round pick.

  3. Dave Pear Says:

    Licht will roll with Baker, who real football fans knows is a solid quarterback and with any help at all from Sloweszo, might actually get a running game and a defense that can play against the pass.

    Wolford is a solid backup, and the Trashkan is under contract for one more year before he’s hawking balloon mortgages for some financial firm.

  4. Pigsueybucsfan Says:

    Just think with all those QB’s being taken ahead of us the player that will fall to us at 26, exciting to think about. In JL we trust! GO Bucs!

  5. Bucs Guy Says:

    Penix is the only Tier 2 QB I see as a starter (in his 2nd yr).
    Nix and McCarthy are career clipboard holders.

    Re-sign Baker and look for a QB to draft next year.

  6. Marine Buc Says:

    We are better off re-signing Baker to a reasonable deal and using our draft to load up on all the other positions of need.

    I actually wouldn’t mind trading back in round #1 and adding extra picks in the top 100. RB/ILB/S/IOL can all be addressed with top 100 picks.

  7. Craig Says:

    Trask was not another lost second round guy.

    I hope he will be even more improved this preseason. He only lost to Duh Baker last season because Baker had real NFL experience.

    What we saw from Baker last year was the best he has ever been. Now the guy that caused that is gone, so what can he do?

    Penix might help fill the stadium, but he gets hurt too often. I watched Nix muddle through a few SEC years where I wouldn’t have picked him to sweep my house. He got lucky in his sixth year. He is a product of a system, as is McCarthy.

    If Trask blows some doors off this preseason Canales will offer a lot for him. Then he will come back to haunt the Bucs, like so many other badly developed Bucs QB kids.

  8. Pickgrin Says:

    Let BA scout us out a project 5th or 6th round QB with future high potential upside.

    I had heard some months ago that there may be as many as 15 draftable QBs this year – so just maybe a diamond in the rough will slip through the cracks.

    If I was a GM – Even if I had an alleged franchise QB – I would draft a QB every other year or so in rds 4>7. Sooner or later you are bound to hit a gem if you put a lot of research into it and doggedly keep drafting QBs late until you find the next Brock Purdy…..

  9. Marine Buc Says:

    @ Pick

    I agree.

    I like the kid out of Tulane – Michael Pratt.

  10. dbbuc711 Says:

    Bucs need to get off their butts and get Mayfield and Evans signed tomorrow.

  11. Capt.Tim Says:

    Every draft teams way over value college kids. Its because they are soooo desperate for a starting QB
    Our on Bucs have drafted 26. None signed a second contract. Only 2 went to a playoff game.
    Yet, despite that nightmarish history, the Bucs were Terrified of life after Brady.
    So much so, that they wasted a SECOND ROUND PICK on a kid with an absolute noodle for an arm. Kid will never start an NFL game.

    Most of these “ sure things” will be bust. Statistically, Meybe One wil play in a playoff game.

    It is so fantastic that the Bucs arent trapped in that losing spiral.
    Thank you Jason Licht, and Thank you Baker Mayfield

  12. I remember 21 Says:

    Buccaneer Rick is correct. Historic QB draft, team that has never given a drafted QB a second contract, how could we go wrong? Well we decided we’d rather have 1 more season of a historically inept, philosophically outdated, defensive minded HC. Mark my words, we are gonna have a better team, but get KILLED by next year’s first place schedule and bowles will finally, mercifully be fired at the end of the season. But the opportunity cost is a good QB on a rookie deal for 5 years on our team which has salary cap issues. Who would want that??? Instead it’ll be the bowles & Baker show next season. bowles will be fired at the end of a terrible season. A new coach is gonna come in with Baker still under contract for 2 years, so he’ll start the coach’s first season, then be replaced by a drafted or free agent QB going into coach’s second year. Tell me I’m wrong, I’ll wait.

  13. Jack Clark Says:

    Our biggest need are good edge rushers. Logan hall, shaq barret, and JTS sorry weak as can kick rocks

  14. Tony marks Says:

    I remember 21 Says:
    February 18th, 2024 at 9:04 pm
    . Tell me I’m wrong, I’ll wait.

    You are wrong and theres no need to wait. Alll you gloom and doom people said the same thing last year

    and your predictions flopped.

  15. Beeej Says:

    Even the FIRST tier guys are mostly failures

  16. Tony marks Says:

    Pickgrin Says:

    If I was a GM – Even if I had an alleged franchise QB – I would draft a QB every other year or so in rds 4>7. Sooner or later you are bound to hit a gem if you put a lot of research into it and doggedly keep drafting QBs late until you find the next Brock Purdy…..

    ——

    Yikes! no statisttics of improbable things do not work like that , Talent of human beings is not like Vegas slot machines. Due to scouts and teams of scouts of each team the odds of fiinding g a stud QB late is very very low because it means everyone missed seeing skill or potential

    so lets call it 200 to 1 (probably higher)

    Picking one quarterback for the next 5 – 10 or even 50 years still leaves you with nothing . playing the odds of 200 to 1 with one pick a year results in almost no dent to the improbability

    Your tihinkng is like the guy that takes 50 dollars a week and plays the lotto – no he is not bound to win. he is still overwhelming likelty to die never winning

    Purdy jsut happened . theres no ssytem to make it likely to happen. Besides Purdy on another team is likely to look a lot worse. Purdy is no elite that every one missed.

  17. JimBobBuc Says:

    Edge ILB OL S

    Trask vs Wolford will be interesting in camp. I give the edge to Wolford since he worked with Coen at the Rams?

  18. sasquatch Says:

    Caleb will be a bust.

    Mayfield is a winner.

    We need to trade Trask for a draft pick, and draft a new backup with more potential upside as an eventual starter than Trask. As long as we re-sign Mayfield, we don’t need a high draft pick QB when we have so many other needs to fill, namely OL, RB, TE, WR3, LB, Edge, Safety.

  19. Since76 Says:

    We had a guy who wasn’t even considered second tier last season. He had an ok year. The talent on this team will make a second tier QB look like the steal of the draft. Go get him and use the saved cap money on more talent. Go bucs.

  20. SlyPirate Says:

    BEST CASE SCENARIO

    If teams make a run on QBs, that means a top OLB/DE could drop (ie Jared Verse).

  21. Jeremy Goins Says:

    If the BUCS waste a early draft pick on another QB then JL is not nearly as intelligent as JOE makes him out to be. We have a perfectly good starting QB who has said that he likes it here and wants to stay. Fn sign what we have l, sign ME13 sign Winfield and go look for pieces we don’t have like a pass rush or a interior lineman or a sure handed good blocking tight end or a fullback to assist the running game our coaches so desperately want. Look what we have done with drafted QBs historically= nothing

  22. GhostofBrady Says:

    sasquatch Says:
    “Caleb will be a bust.
    Mayfield is a winner.”

    Team/HC, Scheme and Player fortitude matters. I would argue anyone else in the 2018 QB Round 1 draft going to Cleveland with exception of Lamar Jackson would have failed because of Hue Jackson and Crooked Jimmy Haslam. Do you think Darnold (who all the experts said had the lowest floor and highest ceiling) would have made it by now? Josh Allen (Mr. Turnover) full-backing and passing would have been given up on in year 2.

    Mayfield is a winner because he survived, learn and put himself in the right situation. Had John Dorsey (the guy who picked Mahomes at #10) picked Baker at 1, he would have been a much better situation and not ruined his after-rookie contract big payday. The crap he has gone through has earned him what should have been that second contract. Heck, the Browns would have been so much better off giving him a second contract at $35-40M a year right now.

    Caleb going to the Bears would be like Eli Manning going to the Chargers or John Elway going to the move’em out Baltimore Colts. Caleb is a great talent. He needs to make sure he goes to a team that is not freezing weather outdoors, history of run-only offenses and killing QB careers. If I were him, I’d triple double-dog dare Chicago to pick him with a full-throated threat to sit out. Get Washington, Atlanta or Minnesota to trade for him and put him in the West Coast Wide Zone or keep him in the Air Raid offense.

  23. Allbuccedup Says:

    You really can’t tell which of these quarterbacks are going to flourish in the NFL. Williams, Maye and Daniels could be busts and McCarthy, Penix and Nix could be studs. Winston, Mariota were busts Tom Brady picked in the sixth round turned out to be the GOAT. The niners traded all those picks for Trey Lance ( bench warmer for cowboys ) and drafted Brock Purdy with last pick in the draft a seventh rounder. I don’t care what these so called experts say, its a lot to do with organizational development.

  24. Fansince76 Says:

    Buc’s don’t need a quarterback, they found one last season and they have their backup also. Buc’s need edge rushers bad, and then interior O line, safety and middle linebacker.

  25. RustyRhinos Says:

    What? “Plus, yearn for a rookie QB all you want, they’re still a gamble”

    After all the articles and opinions we read here on #ColapseforCaleb now, there are just too many teams that want to get a 2nd tier QBs so we should just forgetaboutit!!!???

    All the nonstop chatter from the JBF glee club on how Baker was going to suck and our team woul not win n3 games all season, now we get an article on there are so many teams who want a 2nd tier QB not to mention the ones who want Caleb…{not me} WE can sign Baker and we still have both Trask and Wolford in house. I will admit I am a BO NIX fan, I do not see him dropping to us at 26, Center or Guard here for me, 2nd Rd DE/LB 3rd Rd S 4th RD CB/TE Qb??? we have needs beyond the QB..

    Where is the #ColapseforCaleb BS now???

    GO!!!!!BUCS!!!!!

  26. Ethan Says:

    Bo Nix was known as Bo Pix during his 3 years at Auburn for a reason. He then left to Oregon in the weak Pac-10 conference to improve his stats and sell himself to guys like Joe. From his Scouting Report:

    “Oregon did not ask a lot of him as a processor. Tons of screens, RPOs and simple vertical concepts. Below-average ability to find answers within structure when first read is taken away.”

  27. Beeej Says:

    Near 2/3 of the TOP tier QB’s are usually busts

  28. a horse with no name Says:

    Beeej Says: “Near 2/3 of the TOP tier QB’s are usually busts”

    2/3 of first-round quarterbacks are never signed to a second contract by their team. Read that again. Pretty amazing.

  29. T. McGee Says:

    Always guys off the radar at QB available… didn’t we just watch a Super Bowl with a 266th pick of whatever he was?

  30. Ha-Ha-Ha Says:

    Dear I remember,
    You’re wrong.
    Ole Todd has at least 2 more years.
    Thank you BA for giving us this mess.

  31. vadertime Says:

    We don’t need a QB from the draft. We need to re-sign Baker for a 3-4 year contract. What we need to do is work on rebuilding our aging offensive and defensive lines. Maybe look at picking up another receiver in case we lose Evans or Godwin. A QB is not at the top of the list of needs. Fire Bowles. Go Bucs.

  32. BillyBucco Says:

    Every QB could be a BUST, so let’s NEVER take one again.
    49ers kept trying so good on them.
    Evidently that bench warmer that cost them several 1st round picks didn’t deter them!!!!
    I don’t care where we draft them, but only trying like twice in the last 9 years is just dumb.
    Now we gotta have arguments every day on a mediocre QB getting paid 35 million a year.
    Move On!!!

  33. Esteban85 Says:

    A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

  34. Dave Pear Says:

    Trask is not NFL material. He should try his craft in the USFL. He could be a good backup for somebody in that league.

  35. Chuckys Bucs Says:

    geno711 Says:
    February 18th, 2024 at 8:02 pm

    The 2nd tier guys are just that. Does anyone think that
    Penix
    McCarthy
    or Nix

    will be good starting NFL quarterbacks and worth a 1st round pick.

    The Panthers drafted a bust #1 overall. Purdy was drafted last, Brady in the 6th. No one knows anything.

  36. garro Says:

    Three with legit first round talent. The rest are overhyped leftovers for desparate and inept GMs and their scoutiing departments. At best late round flyer on a QB for us. Austin Reed from Western Kentucky very late or FA invitee.

    Go Bucs!