“I Would Have Already Extended Josh Freeman”
May 30th, 2013
Former Bucs QB Shaun King weighed in on the Bucs’ quarterbacks situation. He says Josh Freeman shouldn’t be in a contract year, and he says if Greg Schiano and Mark Dominik are concerned about their job security, then Mike Glennon might play early in the season if Freeman struggles.
Shaun King is a big fan of his beloved hometown Buccaneers, but he’s no fan of the way the Bucs have been constructed under rockstar general manager Mark Dominik. So it’s no surprise that King isn’t sold that Josh Freeman will make it to midseason as the Bucs starting quarterback.
King, an NFL analyst for NBC Sports Network and one of three Bucs QBs to lead Tampa Bay to the NFC Championship game, was asked on WDAE-AM 620 yesterday whether he thinks Mike Glennon can unseat Josh Freeman before opening day.
King said he simply can’t rule it out but seemed disgusted that the New Schiano Order has even made the question possible.
“I’ll say this. I’m a Josh Freeman fan. If I was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Mark Dominik, I would have already extended Josh Freeman,” King said. “I think when you look around the league there aren’t a lot of guys that are better than Josh that aren’t elite guys. There are only so many Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Mannings and Tom Bradys out there. Josh is in that next group. And he’s young enough where if you stick with him, more than likely he’s going to be a lot better than a lot worse. So I wouldn’t be in this situation to begin with.
“You have to think about how Josh finished last season and does Schiano and Mark Dominik that their job is on the line. If Josh doesn’t play well in the preseason and he gets off to a rough start, your looking at a schedule early and they have some tough games early, I would not be surprised if they went to Mike Glennon.”
As for Glennon, Joe (or anyone else) really can’t say with certainty how quick of a hook Schiano could have with Freeman. So much of that is related to Glennon’s readiness and the standard Schiano sets for Freeman.
Joe, too, lobbied right after last season for the Bucs to re-sign Freeman. Not at a ridiculous price, but something fair that would give the Bucs some security in 2014 and beyond. Freeman’s current contract ends after this season.
Regardless, it’s not a fun topic for Joe to entertain. If the Bucs turn to Glennon this season, then the streak of no playoff wins will continue. (You can catch the entire King interview below..)
May 30th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
I like Freeman too, but he’s been given every opportunity to be successful. Although I think he could use some more weapons (namely a better slot WR and a TE), he has just as much (if not more) talent around him as almost all other QB’s. If he gets pulled at some point in the season (which I obviously hope doesn’t happen), it’s going to be because he deserves it. Schiano and Dominik both want to win now, and they know Freeman gives us a better opportunity if he is playing anywhere near his capabilities. However, if he isn’t, then he doesn’t give us the best chance to win. If he’s throwing pick after pick, at some point he has to be held accountable for his mistakes. I don’t want to hear about miscommunications or anything else, just throw the ball to the guys in red. He is going into his fifth year, it’s time for him to be the QB we all want him to be. I mean seriously, how much longer should we have to wait?
May 30th, 2013 at 3:12 pm
And no, you don’t extend Freeman now. If you don’t understand why, see: Sanchez, Mark.
May 30th, 2013 at 3:14 pm
Freeman hasn’t earned an extension. Mark Sanchez got an extension and he’s already looking to be cut. Let Freeman actually earn it first, but if has another close to the season like last season I seriously doubt he’s the guy.
May 30th, 2013 at 3:17 pm
I bet King thought he was a good quarterback, too so I could care less what he has to say. I agree with fatty about 10% of the time when it comes to the Bucs. He seems to always goes against the popular choice just to get attention (like this article)…How could any team sign Freeman long term after the couple years he’s had?
May 30th, 2013 at 3:18 pm
I’d say he earned a Alex Smith extension, 3 years and maybe 30 million. I’d keep him to find a good qb or let Glennon develop more. Or hell trade, Freeman does have talent worth a 3rd or 4th.
May 30th, 2013 at 3:24 pm
The only way you extend Freeman now would be it he agreed to a pay cut this year and we give a 3 year 20 mil deal with like 8 guaranteed. Freeman wont take that, so it will play out like Flacco’s did. If he has a good year he will get his big contract. He has a poor year he will be offered something like a 1 or 2 yr deal with no guarantees.
May 30th, 2013 at 3:25 pm
You Go Joe- I agree. Problem is that Freeman doesn’t have to accept contracts he doesn’t want. Would he sign a 10 mil a year contract? No one knows so all of this talk about extending him is hard to judge. Everyone keeps focusing on the Bucs side of things while no one is asking what Josh thinks hes worth.
May 30th, 2013 at 3:27 pm
@Tim-even with a good year he shouldn’t get Flacco money, he hasn’t shown he can produce two years in a row consistently. You don’t give a long-term, high dollar deal to someone like that.
May 30th, 2013 at 3:29 pm
Shaun King “One of the two Buc Quarterbacks that lost a NFC Championship game when his defense allowed 11 points or less”
King totally contradicts himself by saying its possible that Glennon could win the starting job but he would have already extended Freeman. He is just about against everything Domink does. I think he is jealous of Dom’s chiseled body!!!
May 30th, 2013 at 3:30 pm
Totally disagree. Josh has been too inconsistent to warrant any kind of extension. I think they get it done sometime this year but most will be based on how he does the first half of the season.
I hate that QBs are babied this way. Everyone is so cautious with their psyche’s. They extend QBs early so they have confidence. Screw that, go out and earn in week in and week out consistently like every other player on the team.
All that said, I agree that he should be extended this year as soon as they are comfortable with his performance and how much they should give him. The reason is because Josh is as good as anyone they can draft the next 2 years and he has a head start and all the tools… odds are he gets better in the same system over the next few years.
May 30th, 2013 at 3:33 pm
“Hawaiian Buc Says:
May 30th, 2013 at 3:12 pm
And no, you don’t extend Freeman now. If you don’t understand why, see: Sanchez, Mark.”
EXACTLY.
They need to know his value first.
May 30th, 2013 at 3:34 pm
Actually, I don’t think Freeman has earned an Alex Smith type extension, if he plays well, and the team makes the playoffs, he will have earned that type of extension.
King is completely talking out of his mouth, a$$ and at least one other orifice, saying that the Bucs should’ve extended Freeman, how does he know they haven’t offered him an extension, it just wasn’t to his liking, are they then supposed to over pay, in which I’m sure King would criticize that.
Then he suggest it’s Dom and Schiano on the hot seat, which may be true, but if so, why would the Glazers OK even a modest (let’s say $10-$12 mil/yr) contract for Freeman now, if they thought they may abandon their coach/GM and bring in another coach/GM which would likely want to have say in the signal caller (especially considering in that scenario Freeman likely had a subpar year).
I have no problem with those who critique the team, but if all you’re going to say is about how poorly you feel the team is being run, then you might as well put on the wig, make-up and rubber nose and go full clown.
I really think Joe just posts these King comments to generate traffic (granted most of it is negative comments towards King).
May 30th, 2013 at 3:36 pm
but if we had extended him a year or two ago, Dominick could trade him for a 3rd or 4th round draft pick next year.
and no one can say that another QB cannot get this team to the playoffs. no one has a crystal ball. Not saying it is probable, just that it has happened and can happen.
May 30th, 2013 at 3:46 pm
T in Orlando- Probably, when an ex teammate and local sports personality calls you out and blasts you for being bias you know there is an issue with integrity.
May 30th, 2013 at 3:51 pm
Chubby also thought that Raheem Morris should have been extended.
May 30th, 2013 at 3:51 pm
I like Freeman but he did nothing last year to earn a new contract. I would take half the yardage and touchdowns for a qb who does not go interception happy in the middle of a playoff run. Free knows what irks Schiano and I am sure understands why he does not have a new contract. If he wants to jump ship after this year I am alright with it because our roster is now playoff ready and he has every chance to earn a new contract. As for King if you look at the two quarterbacks I think you can gleam why King likes Free and it has nothing to do with Glennon being a rookie.
May 30th, 2013 at 4:09 pm
I believe in all probability it is most likely that in the near future JF will be remembered as 1 of NFLs many 1 year wonders… It would seem that the people who have the responsibility in this situation is at the least concerned of this as well…
The wise learn from past mistakes and the foolish repeat them… By the recent acts of this regime, it would appear that they are venturing to be wise!
May 30th, 2013 at 4:15 pm
If Freeman experiences success next season (and I think he will) then Shaun King will go on a tirade about how Raheem was the one that brought Freeman in. I can almost guarantee it. That is the ONLY reason King supports Freeman so much. Not that I disagree with that. Raheem was definitely responsible for bringing Freeman to the Bucs, its just that King’s hatred of Dom won’t allow him to acknowledge any thing Dom has done right so he will make this known.
May 30th, 2013 at 4:18 pm
Nah, a guy who went undefeated and threw for 3,500 yards his senior year in college and was drafted in the second round and guided a team to an NFC title game thinks he is worse than a second-string high school quarterback.
Who could be so foolish to believe he had some talents with such a horrible resume?
(Oh, his NFL numbers were better than the sainted Doug Williams)
Please do continue with the hatred. It makes for fun posts! 🙂
May 30th, 2013 at 4:20 pm
One of the first if not only things Shaun King has said that I agree with. So everyone if Freeman fails this year is Greg Schiano on the hotseat? I believe he should be this year I mean dude has the talent to win. Don’t know why alot of fans hype him up like he is the next lombardi. Dude has enough talent to win so Greg Schiano there are no excuses this year. He should be on much if not more as a hot seat as Josh Freeman is. If he don’t win this year (only excuse being injuries) he’s not that good. Im not a Schiano hater either
May 30th, 2013 at 4:21 pm
Not a contradiction at all. The Bucs could have signed Freeman to a team-friendly contract (meaning if the Bucs cut him there is limited damage) and Glennon still could have beaten him out for a job.
Look at Seattle last year, went out and signed a free agent quarterback who lost the QB competition.
May 30th, 2013 at 4:27 pm
Joe……
Along with Doug Williams….”Shaun King was one of two Buc QBs to lose a NFC Championship game when his defense allowed 11 or fewer points.”
That should be your quote for Shaun King from this point on.
May 30th, 2013 at 4:54 pm
Joe, that means Freeman would have to agree to a team friendly deal. Contracts are between two or more parties. This assumption that the bucs could sign him tomorrow is just that, an assumption.
May 30th, 2013 at 5:05 pm
The important streak is no playoffs not no playoff wins.
I know no one wants to recognize that the Bucs won the division in 07 and 05.
Compared to zero playoffs for the new regime. Of course if they do make the playoffs it will be judged a massive accomplishment…….even if they lose in the first round.
So goes the double standard.
May 30th, 2013 at 5:05 pm
JSmalls:
Agree. That’s why you make it incentive-laden. If Freeman/Bucs have a good year, Freeman rakes in an ATM.
May 30th, 2013 at 5:15 pm
Joe, I am not sure if I am a fan of incentive contracts for QB’s. Dom has been pretty good at working and manipulating the cap but it would be hard to do when you have a QB playing for incentives. They already make more money then any other position, add in a bunch of QB-priced incentives he may or may not hit it would be extremely hard to balance a cap around it. I don’t like that idea at all.
Maybe an escalator type deal could work. Safe for the team, allows some ability to plan around it. Only problem is that it isn’t player friendly so again, we come back to the situation of whether Free would take it or not.
As I and others have already pointed out, no one even knows if Free wants to be in Tampa. No one knows how much he thinks he’s worth. He might think hes worth 18 mil a year. Can’t blame the Bucs for not extending him without knowing the situation.
May 30th, 2013 at 5:30 pm
Joe,
First of all, I’ve never once said anything negative about Shaun King and his ability in the NFL, because it’s irrelevant to his opinion. However, there are glaring holes in your support of him. First of all, he was undefeated and put up those numbers at Tulane. Do you have any idea what Tulane’s schedule looked like that year (Cincy, SMU, Navy, Southern Miss, Louisville, Rutgers, SW Louisiana, Memphis, Army, Houston, La Tech, & BYU)? Not exactly the cream of the crop. Colt Brennan put up much much much much better numbers in Hawaii, and was also undefeated (and beat Boise State). How was his NFL career? As for guiding his team to an NFC Championship, can’t take that away from him. But no one in their right mind can honestly say that he was even an above average QB that year. If you had to rank the top 30 QB’s that year, he’s in the 20s. As for his numbers being better than Doug Williams, last I checked Williams isn’t considered to be an all-time great QB (except maybe by Tampa standards, which means little to nothing. We just had our first 4000 yard QB this year!!!). Was King a better QB than Williams (despite the numbers)? Absolutely not. No way, shape, or form.
May 30th, 2013 at 5:50 pm
Joe has a different view of King than many here. That’s OK.
Frankly, unlike his playing days, at least as a commentator King is consistent.
May 30th, 2013 at 5:51 pm
Living in Chicago, I don’t get much exposure to Shaun King’s opinions on the Bucs except from this site. It’s a pretty incredible thing that 100% of the time that I read about one of his opinions, I think that he’s talking out of his ass and is dead wrong. This is no exception.
May 30th, 2013 at 6:13 pm
F Shaun King. If the bucs did give Freeman an extension, he’d slam that too. This guy is fat garbage.
May 30th, 2013 at 6:17 pm
Why do so many feel it is just impossible for a 3rd round rookie to win the starting QB job AND lead a team as talented as this team w/ 9 pro bowlers to the playoffs? See Russell Wilson, oh yeah and our 3rd rounder came out of the same program as that 3rd rounder. Josh may have put up record breaking numbers for us last year. Is that really saying that much? We’ve never been blessed with productive offenses. How many times did Josh just drive you crazy with terrible passes into the dirt, short 2yds on 3 and 9, locked in with myopic focus for an incompletion or INT? I’m not saying Glennon beats out Josh but were it really an open competition it’s not out of the realm of possibilities. While Josh may be the best we’ve had in a very long time, maybe ever, that doesn’t mean Glennon couldn’t do better than 54% completion.
May 30th, 2013 at 6:53 pm
Love my man Shaun most of the time but,I think this is a bit of a brother thing. Look at RG3 and Russell Wilson’s rookie year they picked up there offenses in spades.
May 30th, 2013 at 6:56 pm
Shaun King is just so bad, it looks like he’s now paying Joe for some positive Publicity. NOT Good! King wasn’t very good when he was here, and now he’s even worse as an analyst. Joe, I just hope you’re receiving plenty of green to keep posting his nonsense here.
May 30th, 2013 at 7:24 pm
Blah blah blah, no way I’m listening to that overblown windbag. King Dingaling is not a Buc Fan. He is a Juice Bag.
May 30th, 2013 at 8:17 pm
9 th ranked offense
29 ranked defense.
freeman is for real…pay now or pay later. e will get paid.
May 30th, 2013 at 8:21 pm
“Joe (or anyone else) really can’t say with certainty how quick of a hook Schiano could have with Freeman.”
I can say it. Freeman would not be benched at all this season. It would have to take the impossible, like four 4 interception games that result in losses.
Remember I said it.
May 30th, 2013 at 8:55 pm
I think Dominik would be more than happy to give Freeman a $15+ million dollar a year contract if Freeman would just prove that he deserves it. You can’t let his late game heroics in a few games cloud the fact that many times we were in those situations because Freeman threw a piss poor INT or missed an easy throw to pick up a crucial 3rd down.
For every thread the needle type pass he completes there are three or four passes that skip two yards short of the target or are thrown behind and the receiver has to make an acrobatic catch when instead they could catch it in stride and get ten more yards after the catch. It frustrates me to no end.
This is why this is more Doug Martin’s offense now than it probably ever will be Josh Freeman’s again.
The one thing I will say in Freeman’s defense is that they are trying too hard to force him to be something that he never will be, a pocket passer. It is painfully obvious that he is not comfortable with five or seven step drops. They have got to adjust the offense to get him outside the pocket and let him move. The majority of our passing offense needs to be either three step drops to get the ball out of his hand, short play-action timing routes, or play-action roll outs for our deep passing game. I personally like him under center better than I like him in shotgun. All that happens when he stands back there in shotgun is he gets the snap and immediately locks in on his target.
May 30th, 2013 at 9:20 pm
No one but Joe loves that fat slob Shaun King.
May 30th, 2013 at 9:31 pm
I was thinking of buying out one of your ad spaces Joe, but i can’t see it sitting next to King’s mug every time you post an article about something dumb he said.
May 30th, 2013 at 9:46 pm
Shaun King is settling for good not great. Last time I checked, baby hands couldn’t score a TD against the Rams.
Why would we settle for good, not great? I thought the whole damn point of a football season was to hoist the Lombardi Trophy? Why would you settle for the “10th best QB under 25?”
I like what Joe mentioned in the comments, “incentive laden contract, Bucs do well so does Freeman’s pay checks.
Hell, Darrelle Revis got ZERO guaranteed money, Freeman should understand the ball is in his court.
I see it going 2 ways: Tremendously successful season or a completely lack luster season with another 5+ game losing streak.
I think we have a great deal of leadership on this team, and Freeman just needs to worry about playing consistent football ala Belichick “Do your job!”
May 30th, 2013 at 9:46 pm
Shaun King is settling for good not great. Last time I checked, baby hands couldn’t score a TD against the Rams.
Why would we settle for good, not great? I thought the whole damn point of a football season was to hoist the Lombardi Trophy? Why would you settle for the “10th best QB under 25?”
I like what Joe mentioned in the comments, “incentive laden contract, Bucs do well so does Freeman’s pay checks.
Hell, Darrelle Revis got ZERO guaranteed money, Freeman should understand the ball is in his court.
I see it going 2 ways: Tremendously successful season or a completely lack luster season with another 5+ game losing streak.
I think we have a great deal of leadership on this team, and Freeman just needs to worry about playing consistent football ala Belichick “Do your job!”
May 30th, 2013 at 9:52 pm
@ gotbbucs
No doubt the Bucs or any other 31 teams would be grateful to pay a top 10 QB. It’s an embedded cost of winning.
May 30th, 2013 at 10:06 pm
Simple, you don’t extend someone your aren’t positive is the answer.
No Mark Sanchez type dilema here, besides do you honestly think Free would have settled for a crap contract? I think not, he probably would have pulled a Joe Flacco and declined the extension to play for the big contract.
May 30th, 2013 at 10:08 pm
Sorry if I repeated a though, didn’t bother reading comments this time lol.
May 30th, 2013 at 10:09 pm
thought*
May 30th, 2013 at 11:46 pm
King is an idiot. Followed closely by Buc_Realist who thinks the Bucs should have extended Freeman’s contract 2 years ago. Got to be a high school kid……no one else would post a thought like that and actually think it was coherent.
May 31st, 2013 at 4:10 am
Sean King really gets on my nerves. 1 minute he’s an absolute Freeman hater, all sorts of claims about he’ll never achieve elite, he’s gonna continue to struggle and hold this team back, and the next minute just like this he’s all “I WOULDA SIGNED FREEMAN ALREADY – I LOVE FREEMAN – I’M JUST A HYPOCRITE MOVING WITH THE TIDE”
Pisses me off Joe, piss me off.
May 31st, 2013 at 5:45 am
Let’s all hope our five year investment in Josh Freeman warrants a re-investment. Because what do we do in 2014, closet GM’s if Josh digresses and the 3 to 4 games in which he played poorly last season become the norm? Cast our fate with Mike Glennon or start over with a rookie on this very talented roster? Ain’t no elite QB’s hitting free agency (unless they have a sore neck) My guess is that our own # 5 will look a whole lot better than any of his potential replacements. Don’t be so quick to break up with your cute but not gorgeous girlfriend just because she gets a pimple or two. You might just end up with Rossie O’Donnel as your prom date.
May 31st, 2013 at 6:25 am
anyone else feel like the bucs will never do anything right in the eyes of the great Shaun King.. i guess king is still bitter the bucs never made him their franchise QB..
May 31st, 2013 at 8:39 am
I’m not going to insult King…I don’t think insulting people is constructive. I will say that I disagree with him. A. Lot.
It takes two sides to negotiate. I doubt Freeman would have agreed to anything that amounted to less than at least $10 mill annual guaranteed. For a few years at least.
I think the same people saying he sucks will be the same people that say the Bucs should not resign him if he finally does excellent this year…because his price would be “too high”.
I find it ironic that some of the same people that accuse King of never finding anything positive to say about the Bucs are guilty of the exact same thing. I remember when I was in management and an inspection came along, I understood that the inspector would never point out the good things. He was there to find the bad, and when you enter a situation in that frame of mind you will always find fault.
That’s how I think some football fans operate.
I myself have been guilty of it. There came a point when I realized that having such an attitude accomplished nothing but kept me from enjoying the games.
May 31st, 2013 at 9:47 am
King is totally right, Freeman is right there outside of the elite qbs. Furthermore he still has shown enough to be able to become a qb capable of winning a Super Bowl, ei Flacco. He is inconsistent, throws too many jump balls, and has streaks of poor decisions, this will be a make or break year for him. However, Schiano is married to Freeman, when he didn’t draft a qb in his first year he tied his fate to Freeman’s. Even with an improved secondary, this is not a dominating defense, so this teams season ultimately lies on Freeman’s shoulders. Hypothetically, The bucs don’t resign Free, its 2014 Glennon won’t be ready to win, and they are highly unlikely to be able to aquire or develop a qb that can save Schiano’s job.
May 31st, 2013 at 1:52 pm
Great article on ESPN Insider- discussing Josh Freeman (specifically) as a NEW AGE QB and throwing for 4,000 yards is the new mendoza line.
It goes on to discuss that Glennon was drafted as insurance, as to not forcing our hand to pay Josh 15 million per season (without him earning it).
The article also breaks down how great Freeman was in 2010 (10th best QB), and how he has REGRESSED to be ranked from 20-29th ranked QB.
The Bucs are doing this right, Freeman needs to step it up.
“The best season ever by a Buc QB” is a load of BS, as the NEW AGE NFL is upon us.