DETROIT -- In the locker room after Sunday's 34-17 loss, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh McCown finally looked 35.

And he walked like he was 75. That's out of character for a guy who likes to say he still feels young because he hasn't been a starter through most of his career.

But that's what happens when you take the kind of beating McCown did Sunday against the Detroit Lions. He was sacked six times and hit a bunch of other times. McCown was limping visibly in the locker room and had his back wrapped.

Looking at him, I wondered if McCown is going to be able to finish the season.

Maybe he shouldn't.

Let's face the facts: The Bucs are 2-11 and going nowhere fast. They need to find out if second-year pro Mike Glennon is in their future plans. The Bucs should let him play the last three games of the season.

Coach Lovie Smith sounded like that's possible.

"These last three games, we'll consider all things," Smith said. "There are a lot of things we want to do, but No. 1 is we want to win football games. You start with that. If there is someone we feel like we want to see a little bit more of, we'll do that. Right after a tough loss like this you don't make those kinds of decisions, but we'll start that process."

The rest of the season should be used to determine if the Bucs need to draft a quarterback or bring in a free agent. That's where Glennon comes in.

Smith has called Glennon the quarterback of the future, and it's time to find out if he is. Glennon got five starts earlier in the season when McCown was out with a thumb injury. Glennon didn't look great during that stretch, throwing for 1,296 yards with nine touchdowns and six interceptions, but he didn't look bad.

The jury is still out on Glennon and it's time to get some final answers. The Bucs know what they have in McCown, who can be a solid backup or a borderline starter on a good team. But the Bucs aren't a good team.

"We didn't get anything going throughout," Smith said of his team's offensive performance.

In fairness to McCown, who completed 20 of 39 passes for 250 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, he had no help from the running game and the offensive line played its worst game of the season.

I don't know that Glennon would have fared any better against the Lions' defense and I'm not saying he's better than McCown. But the Bucs need to play Glennon to find out if he can be a solid starter.