The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have the (dis)honor of holding the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft. With a plethora of needs, Tampa Bay could conceivably go in any direction with this pick. But with Mike Glennon and Josh McCown splitting snaps under center last year, quarterback may be the best route to take.
There are only two quarterbacks really being considered at the top of the draft - Florida State's Jameis Winston and Oregon's Marcus Mariota. Those two signal-callers represent the past two Heisman Trophy winners and are among the most polarizing athletes in college football.
So which QB is head coach Lovie Smith leaning towards?
"It's very early in the process, and much will depend on what happens at the scouting combine, pro days and individual interviews. But he early indicators are that Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston is the favorite - for now," ESPN Buccaneers reporter Pat Yasinskas wrote. "I've heard that coach Lovie Smith prefers Winston over Oregon's Marcus Mariota. When Smith chose Dirk Koetter as the Bucs' offensive coordinator over Marc Trestman, the logic was simple.
"Although Smith and Trestman have similar philosophies about how to run an offense, they disagreed on the quarterbacks. Trestman preferred Mariota."
Mariota comes from a spread offense at Oregon where he took the majority of his snaps from shotgun and was not asked to make many NFL-level throws. His elite athleticism at the position is very enticing though. Winston operated mainly in a pro-style offense under Jimbo Fisher and demonstrated above average pocket awareness and field vision. He is considered the more traditional of the two QBs.
ESPN NFL Draft Insider projects Tampa Bay to follow through on this thinking and select Winston at the top of the draft. Winston's off-field question marks do remain a serious issue though.
"...the reality is Winston is a major talent, in a category with some of the big-name No. 1 QB picks we've seen," Kiper wrote. "However, it's all clouded by the off-field stuff. If he lands here, the Buccaneers have a nice set of weapons for him, and he's the most NFL-ready QB in the draft, maybe the only one in terms of a true understanding of an NFL-level scheme."
