Official Josh Freeman Thread (Post Articles, News, Opinions, Etc.)

[Jumba]

I dont post regularly in here, but I feel Josh Freeman is the answer, and most forget that our O-line is shot up. If we draft a secondary, I can see the Bucs turn around. Injuries always bite us, and it's not Josh's fault. And honestly, a rookie QB or any QB in free agency going to be better than Josh? Probably not...

[Capital T]

There have been few weeks as brutal as the last two for the starting quarterback. His team has lost six of seven games, he's thrown for 9 interceptions and completed under 55% of his passes. He is blamed for ruining a promising start to the season and there are questions about his accuracy, his leadership skills, ability to read a defense and whether his team will ever be a consistent winner with him at the helm.

Some have gone as far to claim he's a bust like Ryan Leaf and Trent Dilfer.

His name is Eli Manning and in 2006 he didn't have a Super Bowl ring. He just had legions of doubters and people who were certain they had seen enough of the younger Manning.

After their week 16 game in which Eli completed just one of the worst games of his Pro career and the NY Daily News proclaimed in a huge headline: "THE ELI MISTAKE".

He would go on to finish a disappointing fourth season with a 56.1% completion percentage, 23 touchdowns and 20 interceptions - a QB Rating of 73.9 - his worst since his rookie season.

His QB Rating had yet to crack 80 and he hadn't had a season where he completed more than 57% of his passes. After all, you can't teach accuracy right? You either have it or you don't.

Sound familiar?

Indeed, there's plenty a Bucs fan who are ready to toss Josh Freeman to the curb. He doesn't have that "IT" factor -whatever "IT" may be. Eli didn't have "IT" either, until he finally matured and the football team around him got better. Two Super Bowl rings and multiple trips to the playoffs, plus not a single season with a QB rating under 85 followed (until this season).

Of course, Eli is just one guy.

Surely big brother Peyton dominated from the outset.

Indeed, like Josh Freeman, Peyton experienced some early success, particularly in his second season as a starter. But even for the elder Manning, his fourth year was the worst since his rookie year. Manning threw 23 interceptions and 26 touchdowns in route to an 84.4 QB rating.

What about Drew Brees - who is breaking all kinds of records? In Brees fourth season starting at least seven games (he started just one in his rookie year), Brees struggled, too. Throwing 15 interceptions and managing 8 fumbles against just 24 TD passes. The Chargers had such a lack of faith in Brees, they drafted Phillip Rivers in 2004 (two years before Brees would leave).

Josh's game has been compared most to Ben Roethlisberger - who has two Super Bowl rings on his finger. However, Big Ben had a great year in his fourth season but in year five not only did he just throw 17 touchdowns but he threw 15 interceptions and fumbled the ball 10 times.

Phillip Rivers has been playing for nine years and has gone from one of the most consistent, dominant quarterbacks in the game to an inconsistent wreck.

In Josh's own draft class - we all know how Mark Sanchez imploded with the worst season of his career and Matt Stafford has seen his QB Rating plummet from 97.2 to 79.2 while throwing just one more touchdown pass (17) than interceptions (16).

The list goes on and on, folks. Top notch quarterbacks who didn't really have that light turn on until years five, six or seven to become the players they are today.


Good read to the Free debate!

[Capital T]

My head is stuck on our 10-22 record over the last 2 seasons. Freeman can set all the franchise records (which we can all realize that QB play has never been a strength in Tampa) But if he cant win all those are hollow stats. You can be satisfied all you want with his only having 4-5 good games a year i guess i just expect more from a franchise qb i want 10+ wins playoff games and superbowls...

I want 1o win playoff games 2 bro, but he gave us 1o wins the year b4 last and we still didn't get in, 1o is enough to get in is that Free fault?

[hammy44]

A lot of the blame being directed at him is not really his. Our team well it kinda sucks.... Yet everyone wants to blame 5. Well all I have to say is put him on the falcons or ravens and see how good they are.... Bottom line we cut or walk away from him and there will be a substantial list of teams calling to ask for his services. Instead of talking about getting rid of Freeman we should be discussing how to get more talent around him. Especially on the defense....

[Brewhouse94]

Ive never said i didn't like freeman all im saying is my faith in him has wavered and i think he should be held accountable for the fact we have taken a swan dive at the end of the season, much like last years 10 game losing streak. I'm pulling for him to be our franchise QB i think he can do it, but hes just lost allot of my confidence in him. I really do hope he proves me wrong, i respect peoples opinion of him even if its very much blinded by homerism to say hes perfect and not part of the reason we could be drafting in the top 10 again is asinine.

[hammy44]

Okay but in the same vein how many games has he kept us in or put us in a position to win and have the def give up points costing us a loss?

[Capital T]

Okay but in the same vein how many games has he kept us in or put us in a position to win and have the def give up points costing us a loss?

Hammy the issue with brew is,free didn't put us far enough ahead in those games he put us in position to win, he seems to think free should win those close games as a franchise QB, he should be the team all himself, not his words but minus well be!

[MagicBucsSox]

@RCummingsTBO: Don't look for the Bucs to make much of an attempt to re-sign Josh Freeman this offseason. Likelihood now is they will wait a year, maybe 2

.

[MagicBucsSox]

Just heard Chris Mortensen say he figures Bucs will talk extension with Freeman once the year is over. "Won't be the big payday he wanted", "they will keep him seeing as there is no qbs out there".

.

http://www.joebucsfan.com/?p=80827

Quote:
Former Bucs tight end and current Buccaneers Radio Network analyst Anthony Becht said in no uncertain terms yesterday that the Bucs should try to extend Josh Freeman’s contract this offseason.

“The body of work shows he’s a guy we have to keep,” Becht told J.P. Peterson on WDAE-AM 620.

Becht explained that he worked with plenty of quarterbacks in a career that spanned 11 seasons and five teams, and Bucs fans should understand that they could do a lot worse than Freeman.

Becht said the Bucs should offer Freeman second-tier quarterback money.

“If he doesn’t take it, then great. Go prove yourself,” Becht said.

Conflicting opinions going on

[bwallstreet]

Ive never said i didn't like freeman all im saying is my faith in him has wavered and i think he should be held accountable for the fact we have taken a swan dive at the end of the season, much like last years 10 game losing streak. I'm pulling for him to be our franchise QB i think he can do it, but hes just lost allot of my confidence in him. I really do hope he proves me wrong, i respect peoples opinion of him even if its very much blinded by homerism to say hes perfect and not part of the reason we could be drafting in the top 10 again is asinine.

Nobody said he's perfect. He doesn't need to be perfect. I don't expect perfect from him or anyone else.

The fact is this franchise has won games with far worse, gone to the playoffs with far worse, and won a super bowl with far worse. Josh doesnt need that 02 Bucs defense to make that happen, he just needs a pass defense that isnt the worst all-time. If we were an average pass defense this year 10-20 range. We would be in the playoffs with our number 1 rush defense and borderline top 10 offense. Do you or anyone else deny any of these things?

Not to mention the fact that Josh is 24 years old, do you know the average age of super bowl winning QB's? 30 years old 30
http://www.sportsdatallc.com/2012/02...-quarterbacks/
More than half the QBS who have on super bowls were 30+ years old
Big Ben and Brady were the only 2 QBs to win a superbowl under the age of 26 since Joe Montana's first and before that it was Namath.
4 super bowl winners under 26 ever....

how many qbs must this franchise give up on and let go win super bowl's elsewhere
Doug Williams
Steve Young
Trent Dilfer

you want to add Josh to the list? He has proven he has talent, can come though down the stretch in games, has a big arm, is mobile, and hard to take down, not to mention his work ethic this year has been excellent.

[bwallstreet]

where yall hatin *** muthasuckas at?

[KH12]

4,000 yards, congrats Josh!

[Capital T]

Lol bwall is lit lol!

[aecon13]

I'm not gonna come on here and try to provoke anything because I have had my fair share of critisizm towards Josh. My final words on Josh for the 2012 season would be this. I think he has the talent and ability to be the best QB in the league. That's right, the best! I get very frusterated, very often, because he shows flashes, and then takes a step back. It gets so frusterating sometimes. In my mind (and I know everybody has a different way of looking at this), this is the scale of QB's in this league.

1. Elite (only consists of Peyton, Brady, and Rogers to me)
2. The excellent (Eli, Brees, Big Ben, Ryan)
If your guy is one of those 7 guys, you are in good shape. Notice that every team that has won the Super bowl since us, has had one of those QB's. I think M. Ryan has just crossed into that conversation.
3. The Good (This is where Josh is right now. In the same category as Flacco, Schaub, Romo, Dalton, Cutler and a few others. If you have a QB in this range, you don't go looking for another one, unless that qb is getting old like Romo and Rivers). Every one of those 7 QB's were in this category sat one time.
4. The verdict is out (These are guys that have not yet proved they can play well at this level, but have not had enough time to prove themselves. C. Ponder, Flynn, Kapernick.
5. The bad (These are the guys you look to replace. Sanchez, Fitz, every Arizona QB, Gaberet, Cassel.

Idk if Josh will get extended this offseason or not, but I do know this, he's not going anywhere.

[Quikdraw]

Greg Schiano's comments about Freeman today during the press conference:

“I am not all in with myself yet so how can I be all in with Josh Freeman or any other player? I need to evaluate. What I can say is, [Freeman is] a 4,000-yard passer, a [team] touchdown record [holder]. There are things you say, ‘Wow!’ Does he frustrate me? Yeah. But those things frustrate him too. Quite frankly I really like Josh Freeman. [I have] to evaluate every single thing for what is best for this organization Do I think Josh Freeman will win Super Bowls in this league? Yeah, I do. I hope that happens here. But I have to evaluate everything before I can say, ‘That is what I am doing.’ I do believe in competition at every spot including the quarterback. I want to have as many good football players on our football team as we can at every single position. As much competition as we can create throughout the football team rises the level of everything. It’s human nature when there is competition the level rises.”