Does Josh Freeman have a chance to be Elite ?

[Dolorous Jason]

Of course he can. He's gonna play isn't he? If he plays like he's capable of and does it consistently, I have no problem with getting that from him as our QB. His best play is pretty damn good. I dont see why he cant work to be that more consistently. Build the defense up and you got yourself a pretty damn good team.

consistently



That is the big thing right there.  I am his biggest fan, but man, its time to show some consistency.  You see guys like Russell Wilson, Luck, and RG III come in to the league, and they are ballin right out of the gate.

He has the skills to be elite

What skills? 

Accuracy?  Nope.
Touch?  Nope.
Intelligent field general?  Nope.
Fiery leader?  Nope.
Calm under pressure?  Nope.
Smart decision maker?  Nope.

Josh makes a living chucking deep jumpers.  Other than that he's got nothing to scare anyone with.

His touch is pretty good. He has a nice deep pass. It's the short and intermediate routes he struggles with.

Not fair to say he isn't calm under pressure . Dude has a lot of 4th quarter comebacks.

Also , you don't need to be fiery to be a leader . You just need to be a leader . Brooks wasn't fiery , but he was a leader. Freeman must have some leadership qualities because his teammates voted him team captain multiple times.

[BucBalla85]

Of course he can. He's gonna play isn't he? If he plays like he's capable of and does it consistently, I have no problem with getting that from him as our QB. His best play is pretty damn good. I dont see why he cant work to be that more consistently. Build the defense up and you got yourself a pretty damn good team.

consistently



That is the big thing right there.  I am his biggest fan, but man, its time to show some consistency.  You see guys like Russell Wilson, Luck, and RG III come in to the league, and they are ballin right out of the gate.

He has the skills to be elite

What skills? 

Accuracy?  Nope.
Touch?  Nope.
Intelligent field general?  Nope.
Fiery leader?  Nope.
Calm under pressure?  Nope.
Smart decision maker?  Nope.

Josh makes a living chucking deep jumpers.  Other than that he's got nothing to scare anyone with.

His touch is pretty good. He has a nice deep pass. It's the short and intermediate routes he struggles with.

Not fair to say he isn't calm under pressure . Dude has a lot of 4th quarter comebacks.

Also , you don't need to be fiery to be a leader . You just need to be a leader . Brooks wasn't fiery , but he was a leader. Freeman must have some leadership qualities because his teammates voted him team captain multiple times.

Agree. He can do it. He just needs to be more consistent and the team around him needs to be better. I mean if Joe **CENSORED**ing Flacco can lead his team to a SB, so can Freeman. I know we dont have the same defense as they do but the defense can be that good. Not overnight but it can over some time. People need some patience.

[JavaRay]

This is the Sterling 'Elite' Mobility Scooter.




Freeman may ride one of these when he's 70.    At that time, he could be considered elite.

[JC5100]

25/6 in 2010 + 25/8 in 2012 before the team was eliminated = trade for Cousins or Flynn

[The Anti-Java]

Of course he can. He's gonna play isn't he? If he plays like he's capable of and does it consistently, I have no problem with getting that from him as our QB. His best play is pretty damn good. I dont see why he cant work to be that more consistently. Build the defense up and you got yourself a pretty damn good team.

consistently



That is the big thing right there. I am his biggest fan, but man, its time to show some consistency.  You see guys like Russell Wilson, Luck, and RG III come in to the league, and they are ballin right out of the gate.

lol, link? Your posts suggest youre not his biggest fan.

Link?

[caradoc]

25/6 in 2010 + 25/8 in 2012 before the team was eliminated = trade for Cousins or Flynn

Selective use of statistics = typical Freepologist M.O.

[The Anti-Java]

Of course he can. He's gonna play isn't he? If he plays like he's capable of and does it consistently, I have no problem with getting that from him as our QB. His best play is pretty damn good. I dont see why he cant work to be that more consistently. Build the defense up and you got yourself a pretty damn good team.

consistently



That is the big thing right there.  I am his biggest fan, but man, its time to show some consistency.  You see guys like Russell Wilson, Luck, and RG III come in to the league, and they are ballin right out of the gate.

He has the skills to be elite

What skills? 

Accuracy?  Nope.
Touch?  Nope.
Intelligent field general?  Nope.
Fiery leader?  Nope.
Calm under pressure?  Nope.
Smart decision maker?  Nope.

Josh makes a living chucking deep jumpers.  Other than that he's got nothing to scare anyone with.

His touch is pretty good. He has a nice deep pass. It's the short and intermediate routes he struggles with.

Not fair to say he isn't calm under pressure . Dude has a lot of 4th quarter comebacks.

Also , you don't need to be fiery to be a leader . You just need to be a leader . Brooks wasn't fiery , but he was a leader. Freeman must have some leadership qualities because his teammates voted him team captain multiple times.

I think "touch" is being able to hit those short and intermediate routes.  He has a nice long ball, but his touch on the short stuff is pretty bad.

[BucBalla85]

Hopefully he's working on those short and intermediate throws a lot this summer. I don't see how he can't improve. Practice and get feedback from coaches. Do what they say. I mean what more is there?

[Detrimental]

25/6 in 2010 + 25/8 in 2012 before the team was eliminated = trade for Cousins or Flynn

Selective use of statistics = typical Freepologist M.O.

On the flipside, its funny seeing Freeman debunkers shoot down his stats but during last off-season was praising Blount for his fluke 2010 stretch and his high YPC on few carries in '11. And "he is a starting caliber back" because Greg Olson didn't know his personnel or players weaknesses and strengths.

For some odd reason, we shutter at players who had posted 2 good seasons, statistically, but praise a guy who had 1 good season and a half(pff not even that). Odd.

[The Anti-Java]

Hopefully he's working on those short and intermediate throws a lot this summer. I don't see how he can't improve. Practice and get feedback from coaches. Do what they say. I mean what more is there?

It bugs me too.  The first thing I notice about a new QB like RG III, or Russell Wilson, is......man, they have nice touch on that short stuff.   I think they all can throw it 50 yards or whatever, if you can't throw a nice short ball, your screwed.  Even Kaepernick has a nice touch on short stuff.  My friend and I have discussions all the time, about is that something s QB can learn.

[BucBalla85]

Hopefully he's working on those short and intermediate throws a lot this summer. I don't see how he can't improve. Practice and get feedback from coaches. Do what they say. I mean what more is there?

It bugs me too.  The first thing I notice about a new QB like RG III, or Russell Wilson, is......man, they have nice touch on that short stuff.   I think they all can throw it 50 yards or whatever, if you can't throw a nice short ball, your screwed.  Even Kaepernick has a nice touch on short stuff.  My friend and I have discussions all the time, about is that something s QB can learn.

I hope it is. I'm sure that varies player to player. It could be one of those things that if you put in the time and take the coaching instead of being stubborn about doing it "your way". The greats work non stop and are able to learn from their mistakes. He worked hard losing that weight but now he needs to put the time in on his gameplay. He's 6'6 and can throw the bombs. IF he improved on that shorter stuff he would be pretty damn good.

[1sparkybuc]

Of course he can. He's gonna play isn't he? If he plays like he's capable of and does it consistently, I have no problem with getting that from him as our QB. His best play is pretty damn good. I dont see why he cant work to be that more consistently. Build the defense up and you got yourself a pretty damn good team.

consistently



That is the big thing right there.  I am his biggest fan, but man, its time to show some consistency.  You see guys like Russell Wilson, Luck, and RG III come in to the league, and they are ballin right out of the gate.

He has the skills to be elite, needs the consistency.

I hear you with Luck, Wilson and RGIII but you have to be able to understand that RGIII and Wilson are running offenses that are college type offenses and that aren't "figured" out by the NFL yet. Same with Kapernick. I"ll jump on the Wilson and RGIII band wagon at the end of next year when they have a similar season.

Luck is a player, no doubt about it. He is in a traditional offense and putting up big numbers, also big interceptions. Everyone's path is different. I do believe we'll see a Cam Newton effect with RGIII and to a lesser extent Wilson.

I agree BucNY. and not only that but hes playing on a team that is simply not as good as those teams. Wilson and Kap played on a team with excellent defense. Freeman played on a team that has **CENSORED**ty defense. What would happen if we switched defenses with SF or SEA?? My guess is we would be a better team than them. Our defense right now really sucks. I know Freeman has to improve his game and be more consistent and all but the defense really needs to improve as well or they are going nowhere as a team. I dont care who you got at QB. You could have Brady as our QB and we would probably make playoffs but we wouldnt be that much better overall. Bradys teams have lost because their defenses havent been good enough. Its a team game, if everybody is playing well, the team wins. Simple as that.

Drew Brees is considered an elite QB. The Saints are 7-9, just like the Bucs. Their defense sucks, just like the Bucs. Brees threw 4 interceptions in a game. Ryan threw 5. Fix our pass defense and the Bucs are a playoff team. Give Freeman two consecutive years of the same system with decent coaches, and he has a shot at being great if not elite. We have several elite QBs who will be watching the SB like the rest of us. They don't always play like they're elite, and their teams failed in one way or another. A QB can't do it all by himself. It's a team game.

[JavaRay]

Brees and Ryan have both made it to the playoffs before.   Freeman never has.   Never will.

[NotDeadYet]

       What often happens is very good QBs make extraordinary plays BECAUSE another player(s) on their team screwed up, or it's a do or die situation for the team. As the QB has the ball, he'll take a gamble with it and sometimes make that extraordinary play. Doing that enough times puts him in the "elite" category.
       My biggest concern with Josh is taking responsibilty for moving the chains as the leader of our offense. Too often he puts the ball where it's either a very risky throw, or there's no hope of achieving the 1st down from where he throws it to. Just needs to play SMARTER overall with consistancy; doesn't need to be "elite" himself to make our team "elite". Be part of the solution, not part of the problem...
       All QBs miss throws at times, so I don't sweat that so much. And we all know Mike Williams and even Vincent Jackson drop passes.
       Hopefully Schiano has prescribed a good offseason program for him, involving both practice AND some team leadership stuff.

[The Anti-Java]

       What often happens is very good QBs make extraordinary plays BECAUSE another player(s) on their team screwed up, or it's a do or die situation for the team. As the QB has the ball, he'll take a gamble with it and sometimes make that extraordinary play. Doing that enough times puts him in the "elite" category.
       My biggest concern with Josh is taking responsibilty for moving the chains as the leader of our offense. Too often he puts the ball where it's either a very risky throw, or there's no hope of achieving the 1st down from where he throws it to. Just needs to play SMARTER overall with consistancy; doesn't need to be "elite" himself to make our team "elite". Be part of the solution, not part of the problem...
       All QBs miss throws at times, so I don't sweat that so much. And we all know Mike Williams and even Vincent Jackson drop passes.
       Hopefully Schiano has prescribed a good offseason program for him, involving both practice AND some team leadership stuff.

The only thing I would add......is if its open, run for the first.