“He’s Teetering”
May 9th, 2013
Ronde Barber weighs in on Josh Freeman’s status and ability
Ronde Barber is preparing to launch a national media career and he’s diving right in.
The retired Bucs icon says Josh Freeman can’t be compared to elite quarterbacks yet, so he explained on CBS Sports Radio this morning.
“He’s teetering (laughs), teetering on the edge of, you know, being really special. Josh is still very young. A lot of people don’t give him the credit he deserves because he drives some people crazy if you watch him (laughs),” Barber said of Freeman. “But he has an immeasurable amount of skill. He’s big. He’s strong. At times, he’s unbelievably accurate. And he has that confidence. You know the great players, in my mind, the one’s I’ve been around, have this like unwavering confidence about going out and doing their jobs. The ones that are elite make the good decisions all the time. And Josh still has to get there.”
“I don’t know when the time will be for him. I hope it’s this year because it seems as if he’s getting pressure from everybody to finally turn into that guy.
Barber went on to acknowledge how stunning it was to see Freeman’s incredible rise and fall during the 2012 season.
“[Freeman] spends a lot of time at his job. I’ll give him that. And I respect him for the work that he puts in every week. Is it enough? That’s for Josh to determine and for his head coach to determine,” Barber said. “But he can be that [elite] guy. I won’t say he’s that guy right now. That would be lying to him and myself. He has the potential. He could be that guy.”
Joe thinks Barber put it well. Freeman is teetering, and it could go either way.
May 9th, 2013 at 12:55 pm
Exactly!
Barber nailed it.
Freeman needs to make consistently good decisions, and we are in business.
May 9th, 2013 at 1:14 pm
NOOO! I haven’t been on here in a while and didn’t know that Barber retired! When I saw “retired Bucs icon”, i was like What the hell?!?
I’ll miss you Ronde; should’ve come back for 2013! This might be the best team since the 2005 squad.
May 9th, 2013 at 1:15 pm
Freeman has made bad decisions, and been wild at times. But, it seems like that as the season went on, our offense was being figured out by opposing teams quite a bit.
May 9th, 2013 at 1:18 pm
Freeman will shock everyone this season…. prediction 32 td’s 8 int’s and playoffs….
May 9th, 2013 at 1:24 pm
Chris@Apple Roof Cleaning Tampa Says:
“Freeman has made bad decisions, and been wild at times. But, it seems like that as the season went on, our offense was being figured out by opposing teams quite a bit.”
Chris, I think that is because as the defense kept losing the lead for us, Josh Freeman took too many risks…probably out of frustration. So to compensate, Sully called more run and short pass plays…opposing defenses were able to stay in the box most of the time.
That should not be an issue this year, as the secondary will not cost us leads (at least ot once Banks claims the starting role from Wright).
May 9th, 2013 at 1:28 pm
Bonzai,
Freeman may have been under pressure from a bad D last year, bu some of his games were DOG SH!T, especially for someone of his talent.
If Freeman is our guy, he will find a way.
No more CRAP AUDIBLES WHEN THE HEADSET GOES OUT. That 3rd and 9 with 2 minutes left at Dallas is inexcusable for a QB of his ability and experience.
Bottom line, no excuses in 2013. Freeman has the power to make things happen, and we need to stop catering excuses as to why we are not where we want to be.
May 9th, 2013 at 1:31 pm
Media can talk about building the defense around Revis…but the entire team is buit around Josh. They went outand got CBs because that is what Josh needed to protcect the lead.
PS Joe, these full page popups are driving me buggers. Ads are one thing…popups reanother. I leave sites over popups because more viruses come from popup ads designed to look like system messages.
May 9th, 2013 at 1:34 pm
tell your browser to block pop-ups?
May 9th, 2013 at 1:50 pm
I hope everyone notices Barber said “teetering” on being special. Not “teetering” on being a bust, or worthy of being replaced by Glennon. There’s a big difference.
May 9th, 2013 at 2:27 pm
@Biggun LOVE IT!
May 9th, 2013 at 2:28 pm
What defenses did was mixed a lot of zone packages to take away the deep ball. Freeman did well in man to man coverage. However once defenses keyed in on him and applied more zone and blitz packages he got rattled. Zone scenes confused him. He doesn’t do a great job of reading defense well and gets tunnel vision. He needs to read the field better.
May 9th, 2013 at 2:40 pm
freeman sux. start glennon. that is all.
May 9th, 2013 at 2:43 pm
He stares down his receivers way too much. One of the rookie mistakes he continues to make. His body is way ahead of his brain.
May 9th, 2013 at 2:46 pm
he has to have a double digit IQ and a 6 wonderlic score.
maybe some vision problems as well.
May 9th, 2013 at 2:52 pm
Ronde, I love you. Well said lol
May 9th, 2013 at 3:10 pm
I wish I were given 4 years to become halfway decent at my job. Funny how athletes and celebrities are constantly given a pass…In the real world, we are expected to deal with dissapointments as a fact of life, most everyone know that things won’t alway go our way. However, with athletes and celebrities, their outlook is that everything should go their way and work out with them othewise “it’s not fair.”
May 9th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
Ronde said it best. He’s teetering and that can mean either way. I hope josh puts it together. If he can utilize his potential bucs are a threat in the NFC.
May 9th, 2013 at 3:50 pm
@Glen, i don’t know what you do for a living but i’d guess there are more qualified candidates for your job in the country than there are for the job of NFL Franchise QB. there are more than 32 guys in the world qualified to be starters, but maybe 20 truly qualified Franchise QBs. so, teams who don’t have one have to rely on development or competition until they find one, but one approach delays the other where Franchise QBs are concerned. unless a candidate is clearly better than Josh the bucs are doing themselves double damage by hindering the incumbent’s potential while promoting a possibly unworthy successor.
the clock is ticking loudly for Josh, whatever they say Glennon and possibly next year’s QB draft & free agency classes are who freeman is being compared against. if they believe there’s a better candidate for the role of Franchise QB based on how the next 10 months play out, the bucs won’t hesitate commit to that guy over josh.
May 9th, 2013 at 5:06 pm
@buc3. Are you really that shallow? Imagine you are walking a fence and you start to teeter. There’s a gold mine on one side and a open volcano on the other. You can either fall on one side and become rich or fall on the other and get your ass burnt. Josh better fall on the right side or we will be talking more about Mr Glennon.
May 9th, 2013 at 7:41 pm
@robert
Not sure if you merit a response with your third grade writing level and childish insults but Freeman had a wonderlic of 27.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Freeman
Ronde said it best. He could go either way at this point. He could also stay right where he is. Which is enough for him to get resigned to a small(ish) deal and compete with Glennon next year. Either that or command big bucks in free agency. (And yes, if Freeman hits free agency next year he will get a massive payday regardless of his performance this year. He would only be 26.)
May 9th, 2013 at 7:43 pm
2013 is the opportunity for Freeman to man up.
60% completion
Less turnovers
Learn the playbook, so when another home team turns off the head sets, we can have a chance to get a “w”.
Not making excuses about misscommunications in press conferences, and looking right into the camera letting everyone know he failed to get it done today and will come back next week. Great champions have that fire. Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Jerry Rice, etc. All those guys weren’t satisfied with just being gifted an elite ability, they held themselves to a higher standard and strive in their work ethic to be the best. Revis can hopefully bring this to the Bucs.
May 9th, 2013 at 7:51 pm
@stevek
I am trying so hard not to engage you but come on man. You are ripping on him for ONE PLAY that a headset went out. Who knows how many times it went out before or after that?
And for the love of God, please don’t bring up some random and unrelated subject as a response. I am ONLY talking about you ripping on a guy for a one time event that you don’t even know the details of.
May 9th, 2013 at 9:00 pm
Lol Robert Look up troll in the dictionary and your picture will be there.
May 9th, 2013 at 9:21 pm
Freeman scored 27, Glennon, 26 on the Wunderlik.
Both have the resident intelligence. Both have plenty of arm.
Comes down to preparation and, ahem, football IQ. Barber did’nt push Freeman into traffic here, because Ronde set standards in both.
May 10th, 2013 at 7:13 am
WestCoastBucsFan Says:
May 9th, 2013 at 7:51 pm
@stevek
I am trying so hard not to engage you but come on man. You are ripping on him for ONE PLAY that a headset went out. Who knows how many times it went out before or after that?
– There are numerous other plays. Look at the the 4INT games, the 5 game losing streak, and the inability to score 21 points per game on a regular basis. I am trying really hard to not be irrational, but I feel the need to show the full point of view: Freeman has been lack luster. What about all the 3 and outs?
And for the love of God, please don’t bring up some random and unrelated subject as a response. I am ONLY talking about you ripping on a guy for a one time event that you don’t even know the details of.
– One time? Josh hasn’t taken us to the playoffs, and he oftentimes cites “misscommunications” as the culprit. If Tampa is going to win another super bowl, then we need a QB that is willing to take onus of his team. No more excuses, period.
Is it too much to ask for a genuine and authentic leader at QB? Freeman has the physical gifts, but does he have the mental wear with all? “Teetering” is the way to go.
May 10th, 2013 at 7:16 am
WEst Coast,
In regards to the “one time” Dallas fiasco, I would like to bring your attention that RG3 faced the same bull sh!t “head set” thing while playing at Tampa. We all know RG3 overcame it and beat us.
What about the last 8 of 9 drives at Dallas? We punted 8 times. Freeman needs to do more, less 3 and outs, and when we lose I don’t want to hear about “misscommunications”, I want to hear” We failed today, I failed today, and we will get ready to go get them next week.”. Josh sounds like he really doesn’t feel like he is responsible for the failures of the team, specfically the offense.
Also, look at the Denver game, we held the Broncos 1st drive in the 3rd quarter, only to see Freeman go 3 and out.
3 and outs are against Schiano’s religion.
May 10th, 2013 at 10:02 am
@ westcoast
I got my grade 10 and I write cursize. that aint 3rd graid