Josh Freeman Wins Over Pete Prisco
June 5th, 2010
There were lots of critics — Joe included — who were not doing cartwheels when Mark Dominik traded up last spring to draft quarterback Josh Freeman.
Pete Prisco, of CBSSports, had a national audience for his disgust.
If intangibles were able to win games alone, Freeman would be a Hall of Famer. Joe loves his attitude and his work ethic and his personality. This also seemed to have won over Prisco, who now believes Dominik got a steal in Freeman.
After watching Freeman start nine games last season, I really believe the Bucs have the right guy to turn their team around. Even though he didn’t exactly light it up, he showed me enough to think he can be special.
After talking to him this week, I’m convinced of it.
There are certain players you talk to that just seem to get it. They are fans of the game. They know the league. They know what they need to do to be a success, unlike a player like JaMarcus Russell, who only seemed to know what he had to do to increase his pants size.
There are a lot of positions on the Bucs that are a concern: running backs, wide receivers, defensive tackles and linebackers.
The starting quarterback doesn’t seem to be one of them.
June 5th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Nice read, Joe!
June 5th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Cue jokers calling for Joe to apologize for “Bust-in-waiting” comments!
June 5th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
I have never heard of a 3-6 qb with twice as many picks as td’s with a qb rating in the fifties get so much hype. he played like a rookie qb last year, and most outside of this market would rank him 3rd out of 3 when compared to the other first round qbs.
Just b/c he didnt completely fail doesnt mean that he is a lock to be a star. This is the offseason, what do you idiots expect the team that has its hc and gm’s future completely on the back of this guy to leak out that he is lazy, not improving etc? No. The lens that this org views this kid through is ROSE-COLORED! we will see on sundays this fall.
June 5th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Thomas:
Pete Prisco works for CBSSports.com and is based in Jersey; hardly a local guy.
June 5th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Joe:
I know that Prisco isnt a Tampa Bay guy but I know that he was in Florida for a while covering Florida sports for the Jax paper. He also is assigned to Florida football teams for CBS. However, my criticism isnt of what Prisco said, “he didnt exactly light it up” last year but showed positive signs. I know that Freeman said the right things to Prisco.
However, everytime Rah or Dom say something about the offseason film study, or Freeman coming to rookie camp – there are stories touting this as evidence of greatness – that is ridiculuous.
I once heard someone say that there was never a player with better intangibles, film study, leadership, work ethic than Ken Dorsey UM qb – well where is he?
The issue is: can you put it all together and do the necessary things on Sunday? Changing your own flat tires and showing up to rookie camp doesnt have anything to do with whether or not he will be successful. Yes film study helps but that is 10% optimistically of the equation.
So lets just stop the reaching for anything to suggest greatness. I mean what does it mean that he whitens his teeth? or what about that he washis his whites with colors? or that he played college football at the same school that use to play a team that once played a team coached by John Elways father-in-law.
June 5th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
QB is still a position of concern, although Freeman showed great promise.
Contributing to the concern is the question of who the heck is he gonna throw to, aside from K-2.
June 5th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Someone peed in thomas’ cereal again this morning…
June 5th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
That was me.
Sorry thomas.
June 5th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
No problem brian. I assume that you and Snookems and Joe and others probably will follow this with a story about how a Snookems and Brian posted a comment about pee and cereal on the first sat night in June which was a year and a month after Freeman was drafted and if you subtract 10 which is 2 times freemans number you get 5 which is freemans number – THIS MUST MEAN THAT FREEMAN IS A FRANCHISE QB.
That isa about how ridiculous all of this b.s. sounds. Freeman is late to Vitales party but it was b/c he changed his own flat tire which means he is humble which is a good quality for a qb. What? that is an example of what happened here recently.
June 5th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
thomas-
You’re completely right in that you will only be judged by your results…..just ask Tony Dungy
With that being said, no one expected him to light it up last year, especially with the lack of talent around him. Physically the kid’s got it…..there’s no doubt about it. Forget about arm strength, I was most impressed with his ability to take a little off it when he needed to and show some touch…….
But in the end, I agree with you. You are what you’re record says you are and last yr Freeman was 3-6 & crazy with a mess of stupid picks. This film study, work ethic, etc that people are getting so excited about, well…..it’s a good sign. It’s what franchise QB’s do….how many “busts” do you know that put in work like this kid? Alright, so he’s going to have to prove it on the field……but this is certainly a reason to be optimistic and (gasp!) excited about the prospect about this franchise possibly having a franchise QB for the first time in its history
Plus it’s the offseason……what the hell else are we going to talk about on JoeBucsFan.com?
June 5th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
I liked the story and read. But I’m a hopeless homer who isn’t man enough to be angry about every story that paints my team and its players in a positive light.
I just don’t get all the exasperation.
Thomas, the Dolphins made a bunch of promising moves this offseason and had a pretty good draft. You should support them by posting negative BS all over their fan blog sites.
June 5th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
D:
Joe’s been waiting for those guys to do just that.
June 5th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
Joe and D:
Nobody is 100% re predictions of nfl players, including Dom and the boys (which means some of this years class will not succeed)>
wts, Freeman did show more than I thought he would last year. my prediction was that he would be horrible and lost. He wasnt. His size, strength and ability to keep plays alive was an asset I under-valued.
However, he was just as inaccurate and inconsistent as he was at k state. so, as i have said repeatedly, unlike what you idiots want to swallow – WE DONT KNOW YET!
June 5th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
We did have one franchise QB, but he became an Oklahoma Outlaw.
June 5th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
Actually, also one that became a LA Express (I think).
June 5th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
Thomas and Eric = sad sacks 🙂
June 6th, 2010 at 8:07 am
You guys are all looking at Freeman so critically now but you forget a very important piece of the puzzle – the OC.
I don’t care how good th QB is if the OC sucks so will the offense.
BTW – You ceral bowl; did it contain Rice Crispies or Rabbit Turds? 😉
June 6th, 2010 at 8:38 am
“D Says:
June 5th, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Cue jokers calling for Joe to apologize for “Bust-in-waiting” comments!”
Screw that….I want Joe to apologize for calling Gerald McCoy “Beast in Waiting” before he’s even played a down. Can you say jinx ??
June 6th, 2010 at 8:38 am
Either that or make Joe call McCoy “bust in waiting” so he will become great also , LOL
June 6th, 2010 at 11:45 am
“Bust in Waiting”….will always be lurking and like Rachel Watson haunt Joe forever
🙂
June 6th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Freeman will for sure be better this year. It’s just a question of how much better? Benn and Williams coming in will help him. But yet again our receiving core has almost ZERO NFL experience. Not having proven, experienced talent on this team will hurt us. It’s pretty obvious that they (Benn, Williams, Stroughter) will win their jobs. Just look who they’re competing against (Clayton, Bradley, etc..). If one of them fails and doesn’t pan out, we’re screwed. We need a plan B. All of them haven’t proven a single thing yet!
June 6th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Be careful Patrick, people will call you a nut job for bringing stuff like that up!
June 7th, 2010 at 8:41 am
There is only one true criteria for an NFL Qb.
When he’s playing, do you always have a chance to win.
With Leftwich, then Johnson starting, the offense looked so pathetic, that I didn’t think we would win a game all year. The team looked hopeless, both offensively and Defensively.
From the first game he started, you always thought we could win the game. With the exact same personel, the team dynamic changed entirely. Other tha the Carolina game, we were fighting to win every time. That’s what every expert who watched Freeman noticed. It’s an intangible that only a great Qb brings to the game. No matter what, we can still win. You can’t coach that, you can’t predict it. You can’t even guarantee it when you Draft it. Some guys just have it.
Every Great NFL QB had bad stats their first couple years. That’s gonna happen. Some great Qb’s still throw to many interceptions( Bret Farve), as far as the haters are concerned. But great QB’s overcome inferior talent around them by making Great plays at the right time. They win!
Eric and Thomas are gonna say we changed schemes over the break, and that made the team more sucessful. B.S!! The big difference was confidence that we could win. The entire squad starting playing harder, once they saw that the offense could actually move down the field and score during crunch time. That changed the entire team’s mindset. You could see the difference.
Im not saying that Freeman is the second coming of Terry Bradshaw. It’s to early to say anything like that. But that’s who he reminds me of. Bradshaw’s early Steelers weren’t greatly talented across the board.but they always seemed to hang around and win. Before long every great player wanted to be on that team,and the players that were on the team played harder, and with confidence.
Not annointing Josh yet, but I call him “Neo”, like the Matrix.
Because, like Morpheus, I believe he might be “The One”