The Buccaneers have announced that Byron Leftwich will be their starting quarterback entering the 2009 season. Leftwich beat out Luke McCown for the job. Tampa Bay coach Raheem Morris announced the selection after practice Saturday, according to the Associated Press.

Byron Leftwich is hoping to become the Buccaneers starting quarterback after outplaying Luke McCown on Thursday night. "Hopefully, I'm the guy," Leftwich told the Associated Press after going 9-for-17 with 100 yards in Tampa Bay's rain-soaked 10-6 loss to Miami. Rookie Josh Freeman went 6-for-16 with 50 yards, and McCown struggled through a 5-for-11 performance with 38 yards. "Obviously you want somebody to jump up and take it," Buccaneers coach Raheem Morris said. "We'll find out when we go back, look at the tape and evaluate this thing."

Buccaneers coach Raheem Morris says that talk of the team trading a quarterback is just business as usual. There was a report on NFL.com Tuesday that Tampa Bay was looking to deal Byron Leftwich, Luke McCown or Josh Johnson. "Everybody in this league, all 32 teams around this time, are calling other front offices," Morris told the Tampa Tribune. "I can't control who calls us. We can control who we call. "Everybody is interested in everybody's roster. Everybody is looking to nitpick off everybody's roster. Everybody has talent, and you're trying to accumulate the best talent for your football team."

Roster cuts are coming in the NFL next week, which means that we should see can increase in trades. Adam Schefter of ESPN wrote on Wednesday that Tyler Thigpen, Luke McCown and A.J. Feeley could be available on the trade market. Teams must reduce their rosters to 75 players by Tuesday and 53 players by Sept. 5.

Buccaneers coach Raheem Morris didn't name a starting quarterback on Sunday as originally planned. Morris said that he still needs to discuss the situation with his coaching staff, and hinted that the club might even wait until after Thursday's preseason game to decide. "It may go overtime," Morris told ESPN, alluding that Luke McCown, Byron Leftwich and rookie Josh Freeman all remain in the mix to be named the starter.

The Buccaneers are sticking with their plan to name a starting quarterback this week. The St. Petersburg Times believes that Byron Leftwich has an edge over Luke McCown in the race for the job. Regardless, coach Raheem Morris is going to decide soon. "Nope. we've got to make it now, man," Morris told the Times. "This is what I came up with, this is when we decided we wanted to make a decision. It would only be fair to those guys to go out and make a decision this weekend and let those guys move on and move on as an organization ready to play. "When I make this decision, that's my quarterback. That's who I'm going with. I can't look into the future and project failure. If you ask me if I'm going to change down the road, that would obviously mean the person I picked failed. I refuse to accept failure right now ... so I'm going to pick my quarterback."

Byron Leftwich will face the Jaguars as a quarterback for the Buccaneers on Saturday. "I've had time to heal. We had some great times there. That's why I never say anything bad about Jacksonville or the city or anything because I enjoyed my time there. It just didn't work out. We both move on, and we've both had success afterward, so there's no hard feelings," Leftwich told the Tampa Tribune. He isn't bitter over losing his starting job ahead of the 2007 season. "Right now, as I get older [29] and more mature, I understand in this league sometimes that happens. And when it happens, you've got to understand that it is a business. They've have had success, and I've had success, also. Now I'm a Buccaneer, and I'm happy to be a Buccaneer."

Buccaneers cornerback Aqib Talib was arrested early Thursday and charged with battery and resisting arrest. Talib struck a cab driver in the right ear and neck with a closed fist on Wednesday night, according to media reports out of Tampa Bay. When police arrived on the scene Talib and two other men were passengers in the cab. Police asked Talib to get out of the car three times and he did not cooperate, according to the police report.

Tampa Bay safety Tanard Jackson has been suspended for four games by the NFL for violating the league's substance abuse policy. "I can't really go into the details of the situation, but I can let people know that I'm obviously disappointed in decisions that I made that got me in this situation," Jackson told the Associated Press. "I'm definitely disappointed in myself. I let my team down ... a lot of people down. The fans, I'd like to apologize to them. ... I'll be out four games and I'm apologetic. When I come back, I'm hoping to get back on track and move on."

Buccaneers coach Raheem Morris says that rookie quarterback Josh Freeman is falling behind Byron Leftwich and Luke McCown. Morris added that Freeman's development may have been stunted by his lack of participation in full-team parts of training camp. Tampa Bay's coaching staff has spent a lot of time evaluating Leftwich and McCown, which hasn't left much for Freeman or Josh Johnson.