Josh Freeman's accuracy thus far

[alldaway]

Through three pre season games Freeman's completion percentage is.........*drumroll*....57.5%

Limited number of attempts yes, but that is near his career average of 60.5%.  Given the Bucs are installing a new timing offense I think Freeman is really close to where he needs to be. 

Conclusion?  I think people fail to understand that the Bucs are starting from scratch with a new offense and defense.  Greg "Rutgers" Schiano is being a bit misleading as to not calling this a rebuilding year, but it is.

[Hate]

i don't need to see any #s to know he looks like crap.... same as last yr. Dude needs to step it up as he had zero excuses this season.

[Blaze688]

It's not the numbers.  It's the circumstance.  That 2.5-percent difference represents an overthrow to a wide open receiver on third down.  It represents a one-hopped pass on second-and-long, after passing up 20 yards of scrambling space.

His completion percentage improved from 2010 to 2011, but I don't think "accurate" was the term to describe him last season.

[McCoy93]

I'm sorry but learning a new system is a poor excuse for some of the bad throws i saw last night; Freeman was getting some solid time to throw.

[alldaway]

Freeman has always over thrown WR's througout his career.  This is not new or interesting from my view. 

[Hate]

Freeman has always over thrown WR's througout his career.  This is not new or interesting from my view.

and you're ok with that?

[Boid Fink]

He has had much time to throw, he just hangs on to the ball too long, and doesn't release, or read fast enough.  His accuracy is vastly skewed by teh safety valve throws he resorts to.  I hate when it is 3rd and nine, and he throws it 5 yards downfield.  HATE THAT!!

[alldaway]

Freeman has always over thrown WR's througout his career.  This is not new or interesting from my view.

and you're ok with that?

Yeah because he can give you the occasional big play.

[Blaze688]

Freeman has always over thrown WR's througout his career.  This is not new or interesting from my view.

and you're ok with that?

Yeah because he can give you the occasional big play.

This... is not the case.  I can think of a dozen big plays from 2009 (the touchdown pass to Clayton versus the Saints stands out a lot), and 2010 (pretty much every game).  But 2011... eh.  Nothing really comes to mind.

[alldaway]

Go re-watch the 2011 season then.

[Rusty]

Did anyone notice how Brady was throwing lasers, I mean at times he really zipped those throws in tight spots. Freeman's often times looked like wounded ducks. All the right people sing Freeman's praises but his throws look terrible to me.

[Blaze688]

Go re-watch the 2011 season then.

Oh?  Were there that many big plays?  Man, I must've totally blanked out on Sundays last fall.  Please, educate me.  To which big plays are you condescendingly insinuating?

[alldaway]

Brady's passes were so good he was intercepted trying to force one in.  His passes outside of the hashmarks were weak (especially to Lloyd)while Freeman had no problem hitting Jackson near the sidelines on the opening drive.  Freeman's passes towards the middle are weaker, because he isn't using his entire body to follow through.  But that will take time as his posture looks a lot better coming out from center compared to last late pre season/regular season.  He actually plants his backfoot to throw now when he is out from center, but most of his powerful throwsstil come when he is out from the shotgun and he is able to use his thumb to put a spin on the ball.

[John Galt?]

His deep ball is fairly accurate, it is his checkdowns and short to mid-range passes that he either is behind or overthrows. When he puts his full arm & body into it, he throws a good ball. It is when he goes half strength that you get wobbly ducks. Like his arm only has one gear.

[nitey]

Everyone has their opinion, but frankly, I don't think that the coaching staff has had enough time with Freeman to reverse some of the faults that he got into last season. I'm just not worried yet.

It's pretty clear to me that he's still too worried about throwing interceptions and is being hesitant in pulling the trigger. In 2010, there was little hesitation and more confidence. That lead to 2011, overconfidence and gambling which by the end of the season was a lot of hesitation and little confidence. Eli Manning had the same problem when Sullivan first got him, Manning started out rocky as well.

Also, this is preseason, while the coaches want to win the games, the players are often working on a particular part of their game sometimes to exclusion of others - In this game, I noticed that Freeman was attempting to read defenses better than he did at Tenn, so maybe that was what Sullivan had him working on this week, or maybe not. Either way, I'm not judging Freeman until the end of the season and I refuse to worry about it because it's not as if the Bucs have any other choice at the moment.

Freeman has his flaws, but he's still significantly better than most of the QB's that the Bucs have had behind center in the history of the franchise and he's still young enough to improve.

I believe as his confidence improves, and Sullivans coaching comes more into play, Freeman will continue to improve, but it's going to be a process not a switch (as much as I would love to have it that way).

JMO.