Doug Williams Weighs In On Josh Freeman
November 1st, 2011
Grambling State head coach and former Bucs icon and personnel executive Doug Williams, the man with the loose-lipped barber, might not be game for a group hug with Mark Dominik and Team Glazer anytime soon, but he was eager to offer a take on Josh Freeman’s struggles during an interview on The Dan Sileo Show yesterday on WDAE-AM 620.
Williams asserted that Freeman’s regression is the result of overconfidence and a byproduct of lost chess matches with defensive coordinators.
“I always thought that Josh [Freeman,] even coming out [of college] was the best of the three quarterbacks [in 2009.] And my mind don’t change on that,” Williams said. “It’s just that the kid is struggling. You know, No. 1, I know Josh pretty good, and I know one thing he does play with is a lot of confidence. And sometimes you can get overconfident and, you know, people are going to change on you. The team that you play got a little more film on you. It’s one of them things; he’s going to work his way through it. He’s got some young receivers that can play. I think it’s just a matter of time and he’ll find a way to work out of it.”
Joe’s written numerous times that Freeman’s up against an asinine lockout in which coaches had nothing better to do than to break down film and find new ways to confuse him. Clearly, it’s worked for the bad guys.
However, Freeman was stellar two weeks ago against New Orleans, the Bucs’ opponent Sunday. That bodes very well. And Freeman had one of his best-ever days (21-for-26 and two touchdowns) at the SuperDome in January.
While Freeman struggled in England, in Joe’s mind the key to the game lies more with the Saints trying to figure out Freeman, not the other way around.
November 1st, 2011 at 11:16 am
Joe one thing never mentioned is that Josh is very smart and he will figure it out. It is the receivers that need to be looked at also, are they running their routes correctly as called and or they doing free style? If they are not where he throws it and they should have been there is a different problem.
I just don’t understand how the opposition gets so wide open in every game and we don’t. Maybe because I am a Bucs fan and am too critical, but something is going on with the receivers. Do you know what it is?
November 1st, 2011 at 11:32 am
Teams are making an effort to keep Freeman in the pocket and Freeman is forcing throws to the middle of the field. Not that throws should ever be forced, but the only places you can get away with being overconfident on the field is outside the hashes where there is usually one defender and one offensive player.
What needs to change is this: Freeman needs to quit trying to force so many throws inside the hashes. To do that, Olson has to make the focus on the primary receivers outside the hashes more often AND I think even more importantly, he has to devise ways to get Freeman outside of the pocket more often with bootlegs, roll outs, and half rolls. This will enable him to be more comfortable by being on the move, threaten the defense with his feet, and prevent the defenses from boxing him in with their pass rush.
They have to get Freeman on the move by design. Too often Freeman is called on to take a 3 or 5 step drop, he gets boxed in by ends that are trying to contain and DTs that are containing and getting pushs and he is unable to step into his throws, throws off the backfoot and makes the big mistake.
November 1st, 2011 at 11:38 am
I agree that the receivers need to work on their separation but let’s face it…in the NFL separation is a relative term. A yard could be good separation. The timing of the routes is critical. This is where I think Freeman is struggling. He needs to start throwing the ball before the break and just trust that the receiver is going to either catch it or knock it down. He’s been throwing late a LOT this year. I don’t think overconfidence is his problem, I think he’s been tentative and he’s looking for more separation than he’s going to get. I’m not saying throw into traffic but I am saying that if you look at great QB’s like Brady, Rogers, Manning, etc. they put the ball into small windows and trust their receivers to come up with the ball. That’s what I said about a yard of separation being enough if the ball is thrown correctly on a crossing route. I’ve seen Freeman do it with Preston Parker repeatedly this year on crossing routes so I know he can make the throws but he seems to wait until it’s desperation time to do it. He need to start trusting his arm in the early part of the game as well.
November 1st, 2011 at 2:11 pm
OB, I will tell you this. During the Chicago game Winslow ran an out route towards the sideline. Freeman threw it a good 3 yards away from him and short. On the route by Winslow I can most assuredly tell you it was a bad route. Winslow ran the out and turned the route up slightly at an angle of 100 degrees or so, routes towards the sideline should be run at 90 degrees or less (to come back to the QB). If Winslow had run the route at 90 degrees I’m pretty sure the pass would have been on the money. I suspect that in Winslow’s case, he has been running sloppy routes all season.