John Elway Gives A Thumbs Up To Josh Freeman
March 26th, 2011
Who better to know a quarterback than a Super Bowl-winning quarterback?
Who better to know a quarterback than a Hall of Fame quarterback?
That’s the case with former Broncos quarterback John Elway. Now a president of the team, Elway attended the NFL owners meetings in New Orleans recently where eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune decided to corner a number of non-Bucs officials to gauge their take on the Bucs starting quarterback.
Count Elway among those who is impressed.
A first-round pick out of Kansas State in 2009, Freeman said his personal goal is to be compared with the game’s elite quarterbacks – Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees.
Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway already likes what he sees.
“I’m really impressed with Josh Freeman,” said Elway, the new executive VP of the Broncos. “I haven’t met him, but from the way he plays, the Bucs definitely hit on him, that’s for sure.”
Among others Kaufman spoke with was Arizona Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt who claimed Freeman is special because of the way he is clutch late in games.
The interesting thing is that virtually every non-Bucs source eye-RAH! spoke with for the story raved about the way Raheem Morris has handled and nurtured Freeman.
March 26th, 2011 at 11:32 pm
I lived in Seattle when John Elway played for Denver, his nickname was “Mr Ed”
March 27th, 2011 at 12:12 am
eye-RAH!’s article is a great confirmation of what we already know, I love it.
If Freeman has one glaring weakness to his game though, to me, it’s his scrambling. He has the speed, determination, and power to be amazing at it, yet he just always looks so…awkward somehow. It’s like he could be so much more dynamic doing it than he is.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that he’s smart about it, he knows he’s a passer first and doesn’t take unnecessary risks, and slides and all that good stuff. But you see Aaron Rodgers or Mike Vick or Brett Farve when he wasn’t an old man, and they were just natural at it I guess. Its just something that I think he is far below his potential at, where his arm and decision making are way above par. I’d really like to hear about a coach working on something like that with him to be honest.
March 27th, 2011 at 12:18 am
im just glad we have #5 he is the real deal!!!!
March 27th, 2011 at 7:55 am
Leighroy, he looks unnatural because it isn’t natural for a yeti to move that fast.
March 27th, 2011 at 8:26 am
Raheem and Dominik hit a grandslam with Freeman! I’m just glad Rah had the chance to work with and observe him while he was at K-State. He knew Freeman was special despite his mediocre college career.
March 27th, 2011 at 9:14 am
I’m 100% for Freeman to become great, but just to add a little reality to this topic…
…he still has not proven himself. Yes, he looked great so far…and is extremely promising. But remember, he has to do it more than one year in a row. His first year was not great, his second year was.
I’m glad the media thinks he’s good, but what happens if he does poorly out of the gates this season for a few games? All this build up is placeing a lot of expectations on him, and the fans will turn on him qwuickly if he loses 2-3 games straight.
March 27th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
@LeeRoy
To me, if Freeman plays like this past year we are set.
I think Freeman’s greatest strength is he is big and has a strong arm and likes to take advantage of his arm strength by hitting WRs 20 or more yards down the field. Not ever QB can fire a laser deep down the field like that.
My concern with Free, is him starting a little slow and throwing balls high and erratic at first. If he can hone his concentration in right out of the gate and find a way to be accurate from the first series, maybe even the second, he will put himself on Peyton’s level.
I want to see Free focus on his accuracy from the get go.
But the man is clutch. And that is what makes him fun to watch.
His scrambling is a bonus now, while he is young, but since he is so big, he will be able to transfer his game more to his arm more and more as the years go by. Nothing but upside.
March 28th, 2011 at 8:06 am
Yeah, that’s really nice of Elway. But if you look at Freeman’s numbers from last year- do you really NEED someone elses opinion?? It would be obvious to anyone but an idiot that this guy is the real deal. With the games he won by 4th quarter comebacks, there can’t be any doubt that he is a franchise QB. Everyone has pretty much acknowledged that( except for poor Pete, who is really off his game the last two weeks). As for his scrambling- whaaa? Did you watch last season at all? Or did you just have to throw something negative in there? The guy is a feared Runner, and drove defenses crazy with it. Come on people, try to pay attention!