TAMPA, Fla. -- One of the questions Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith was asked in Monday’s session with the media was whether he would be comfortable starting a rookie quarterback.

As he has been known to do, Smith danced around the question.

"As far as who I'm comfortable with, I think, as a general rule, you have to give the rookies coming in -- [they] have a lot to learn," Smith said. "I'm comfortable with the best person that I feel like can help us win. I’ve never been caught up on whether a guy was a rookie, a veteran, whatever. You just go through the process, and the process I'm talking about of getting there in the classroom, on the field, preseason games, all of that. We’ll know then. If that’s the young guy that we’re having to start at any of the positions, I’ll be fine with that."

A look into Smith’s history shows he hasn’t started rookie quarterbacks very often. The last time he did it was with Kyle Orton in Chicago in 2005. The results weren’t pretty. Orton threw for 1,869 yards with nine touchdowns and 13 interceptions while making 15 starts.

But Smith can’t let that experience dictate what he’s going to do with the Bucs in 2015. Tampa Bay has the No. 1 pick in the draft. All indications are the Bucs are leaning heavily toward Florida State’s Jameis Winston with Oregon’s Marcus Mariota as the fallback option.

Smith won’t say it yet. But Winston or Mariota would be an instant starter. The logic is simple. If you take a quarterback at No. 1, you start him.

Winston, who played in a pro-style offense in college, is the more ready of the two. But Mariota, who ran a spread system in college, also would be asked to start from the beginning. Both quarterbacks have lots of upside, and they would benefit from a strong supporting cast at the offensive skill positions.

Besides, it’s not as if the Bucs have a strong alternative to starting a rookie. If they thought very highly of backup Mike Glennon, they wouldn’t be drafting a quarterback first.