Joe generally enjoys Tom Balog’s offerings in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Thankfully, it’s one of the few Gulf Coast papers south of Tampa Bay that still employs a Bucs beat writer.

(Memo to publishers and editors: See the recent circulation numbers? You aren’t going to get more readers by offering less. You think you’ll get more readers by covering sleep-inducing, stupid-ass zoning board meetings as opposed to getting fresh, original Bucs coverage? Keep dreaming, and to here’s hoping you have some sort of golden parachute when your gig evaporates.)

But today, Balog is terribly off base on this Josh Freeman situation and Joe has to set Balog straight, as much as Joe likes him.

Freeman will have two weeks of practice taking starters reps, although the team will have only two practices this week, on Wednesday and Thursday before taking a long weekend break.

Um, Bucs offensive coordinator Greg Olson is using Chucky’s playbook. You really think Freeman can master this in two weeks? Com’ on.

Freeman will have the rest of the season to get oriented to life as an NFL starter as the Buccaneers begin the discovery process across the final nine games, to see what they have in the 21-year-old from Kansas State.

Like the Bucs can’t do this next year when Freeman is more qualified to start an NFL game? What’s the rush? Like the Bucs will contend for a Super Bowl title in 2010 if Freeman starts now?

Freeman was the 17th overall pick taken in the 2009 NFL draft,  to become the franchise quarterback of a team that has never had one.

Just because the Bucs made a mistake in reaching for him in the first round because Freeman’s bride Raheem the Dream was in heat over “Tito” doesn’t mean Raheem the Dream should make a collossal mistake by rushing Freeman. Thereby ruining the kid, which will surely kill Raheem the Dream’s career. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

He will be entrusted to leading the Buccaneers to enough victories to enable Morris to keep his job after this season.

What Freeman does this year or maybe even next year has no bearing on Raheem the Dream’s job. If anything, waiting til next year to start Freeman might give Raheem the Dream an extra year of job security. No coach is going to get fired based on a quarterback’s first year as a starter, specifically a quarterback drafted in the first round.

If Freeman is rushed and melts down and never recovers as a result, then Raheem the Dream’s gig is certainly toast. Also remember that if Freeman is named a starter, he will go against Dom Caper’s defense with the Packers. Capers is the architect of the famed Steelers zone-blitz, a system perfected by Dick Lebeau.

Going against a Capers’ defense is not the time to rush a quarterback into service for his first NFL start.

The element that will best determine Raheem the Dream’s ability to return next year will be if Chucky is hired by any NFL team, not what Freeman does this year.