Time to bench Freeman

[GrimmReaper]

JJ has always come in and sucked dude. Youre high if you think hes more than anything other than a backup. Youre going to bench a guy that had one of the best years for a QB ever last year because of a bad stretch and start thinking about drafting another QB. Thats just **CENSORED**ing retarded. Anyone with half a brain and a football IQ above 5 can see the offensive play calling isnt what it should be, the O-line is hit or miss with more miss the past couple weeks, the WRs arent getting open, due to them and play calling, the run game isnt getting going to open up the pass.....the Bucs have won ugly and lost ugly. You want to play musical chairs whe the evidence is right in front of you. Get clue, or at least learn what evidence is.

OK, so you think the OC is the main problem, the Oline isn't consistent, the WR's aren't getting open, and the run game isn't getting going due to the WR's not getting open.

You could have just said that instead of calling me stupid, but that's okay. At least I know how to put a sentence together.

Im glad you line of work doesnt involve my daily life because Id likely end up with problems than I started with.

^^ That has never happened in my 25 years at work, but don't worry. You probably couldn't afford me anyway.

[tatmanfish]

JJ has always come in and sucked dude. Youre high if you think hes more than anything other than a backup. Youre going to bench a guy that had one of the best years for a QB ever last year because of a bad stretch and start thinking about drafting another QB. Thats just **CENSORED**ing retarded. Anyone with half a brain and a football IQ above 5 can see the offensive play calling isnt what it should be, the O-line is hit or miss with more miss the past couple weeks, the WRs arent getting open, due to them and play calling, the run game isnt getting going to open up the pass.....the Bucs have won ugly and lost ugly. You want to play musical chairs whe the evidence is right in front of you. Get clue, or at least learn what evidence is.

OK, so you think the OC is the main problem, the Oline isn't consistent, the WR's aren't getting open, and the run game isn't getting going due to the WR's not getting open.

You could have just said that instead of calling me stupid, but that's okay. At least I know how to put a sentence together.

Im glad you line of work doesnt involve my daily life because Id likely end up with problems than I started with.

^^ That has never happened in my 25 years at work, but don't worry. You probably couldn't afford me anyway.

lol, nice try with the "oh yeah! I make more money" bit. It still doesnt change the fact that your "idea" to "fix" things wouldnt solve anything and would create more problems.Not too mention the effect it would have on Freeman and this entire team to sit the leader and only guy to win them a bunch of games on nearly his arm alone.

Yeah great idea!!!

[GrimmReaper]

It's all good Tat. I knew I would get blasted for this thread, anyway. I'm not tripping.....though I'm sure that will be debated as well. LOL.

[GayRobot]

Grimmreaper, what you just said, is one of the most insanely idiotic thing I have ever heard. At no point, in your rambling incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul.

[JavaRay]

That sounds a bit familiar.

I guess I would expect a GayRobot to quote Billy Madison.

[lyronmewis]

Josh Johnson is even worse though, so that's not an option. Freeman is playing awful, probably the worst year of his career so far. I'd be a bit more concerned though if the rest of the offense were playing well. Receivers just aren't getting open, they're dropping passes, and just not running proper routes. A few inches, and a few fractions of a second off makes a big difference. Not to mention crappy playcalling. He definitely has issues to work on though, and I don't know if they're fixable without an offseason. Van Pelt and Olson should be working overtime to try and figure out what's wrong. Maybe bring in a consultant or two to help out. There's still times where he looks just as good as last year. There hasn't been any aspect of his game that has improved though.

I think next year when Johnson leaves, they should bring in a younger, veteran QB who could at least make Freeman watch over his shoulder and motivate him to play a bit better, not to mention, help him out.

At this point, you can't call Freeman a franchise QB, but he shouldn't be benched anytime soon.

[JavaRay]

I think next year when Johnson leaves, they should bring in a younger, veteran QB who could at least make Freeman watch over his shoulder and motivate him to play a bit better, not to mention, help him out. system.master

Imagine if they had Tebow right now.   100% guarantee that fans would be wanting Tebow to play this week.    Dom and Raheem have scrub backups for a reason.   They don't want anyone calling for the backup to play.

[Morgan]

I can't agree (Tebow). Our fan base has a better football IQ than that  - I think they'd recognize that Freeman doesn't have much to work with - except for Blount.

[Skull and Bones]

but I thought we have the best and deepest WR core in the league and Dom took our biggest weakness and turned it into a strength in 1 year.  at least that's what I heard here for the last 6 months. 

[BucNY]

This is one of the dumbest threads i've read. There have been many lately. We got blown out in the 49ers game but the 2nd half Freeman didn't actually play to bad. He has made some bad choices throwing the football but he is in a slump and has to work that out.

I love JJ but he is not our best option. Freeman is a better QB, period.

[Blaze688]

I love how everyone overreacts to this thread.

"ITS TEH MOST RETARDED THNG IV3 EVER HEARD!!11!1!!1 LOL"

Freeman's playing like crap, and if he has another week where he looks lost and timid, then yeah, bench his ass.  Steve Young got benched for poor play early in 1994, cleaned up his sloppy play, and took the 49ers to the Super Bowl.  You guys act like a good quarterback has never been pulled before.

[acacius]

First of all, Freeman is playing terrible. Only Sam Bradford has a lower QB rating in the entire NFL among regular starters. He has the fewest TD's among all NFL starters with only three through five games, tied with Sam Bradford. His TD/INT ratio is the worst among all starting QB's with 3 TD and 6 INT. In fact, he is the only QB who has twice as many INT as TD in the entire league.

Where did he rank in these stats before this last game?  Not among the elite, I'll grant you, but not nearly so low.  Benching Freeman at this point would be a fairly epic representation of stupid.  Let's let the season play out and see if things don't even out over time rather than panicking after one game where the entire team stank on ice.

[dbrooks55]

I think next year when Johnson leaves, they should bring in a younger, veteran QB who could at least make Freeman watch over his shoulder and motivate him to play a bit better, not to mention, help him out. system.master

Imagine if they had Tebow right now.   100% guarantee that fans would be wanting Tebow to play this week.    Dom and Raheem have scrub backups for a reason.   They don't want anyone calling for the backup to play.

I tried to imagine that and I finally agree with you Java!!!! If we had Tebow this year as a starter....the fans would be 100% behind it. It would mean we would be getting Andrew Luck, who wouldn't want Luck!?!?!?! Time will prove the Tebow supporters wrong!!

[Bucs Capacitor]

Free has in no way done anything to warrant being benched. We're 3-2, people. Also Josh has in no way shown that he is a better option (no pun intended). He's never even won as a starter. Don't be ridiculous.

Let me put it this way...

The Atlanta Braves acquired Dan Uggla from the Marlins last off-season.  They desperately needed a big bat, and Uggla was a perennial 30+ HR, 90+ RBI kind of guy.  So he comes to the Braves, and for the entire first half of the season, hits somewhere around .160 with a measly handful of home runs.

Nearly every Braves fan was screaming for him to be benched, or sent down to the minors, or what have you.  Some were clamoring for him to be released or traded. His huge slump was inexcusable.

But the Braves kept him in there.  His history proved he is a good hitter.

Sure enough, he woke up after the all-star break and had a 33 game hit streak (franchise record), ended up with 36 HRs (most of his career) and 82 RBIs (which led the club).  Now every fan loves him and has forgotten about the whole slump debacle.

My point is, Freeman has proven to us he can perform at a high level.  He has proven to us he can win games.  He has proven to us that he can overcome adversity.

So why in God's name would you want to take the ball out of the hands of the person that mostly responsible for the turnaround of this franchise??  Listen and have faith in the coaching staff and front office.  As I learned in the baseball season, they actually DO know more than the fans.

And to add to the youtube quotes...

[jerseybucsfan]

Capacitor, a good analogy. I don't think Grimm's original premise is wrong: when things are wrong, you look for a solution. But five regular-season games is too small of a sample to pull the plug on the player on your offense with the biggest upside. He played well enough for half of the Minnesota game and the Indy game to say he hasn't been terrible the whole time. But he IS holding onto the ball too long, receivers are dropping too many passes AND the play calls have been lousy. Add a lack of depth at RB, slow start by the wideouts and injuries to tight end and you have a less than optimal offense.
What to do? Either become more precise in the plays you're calling OR call different plays. Since Free's throws have often been a case of bad mechanics and wild high, the natural tendency might lean toward conservativism. But I'd go the other way on this one. Stretch the field. Air it out. You can't play scared (though you can't play stupid either).