Son, This Isn’t The Big XII

July 25th, 2009
To expect bust-in-waiting Josh Freeman to do anything this season is wishful thinking at best.

To expect bust-in-waiting Josh Freeman to do anything this season is wishful thinking at best.

One of the best bets in sports is that a quarterback from a college spread-option offense will struggle in the NFL.

A spread-option offense, which is all the rage in college, is so drastically different than NFL offenses it’s almost like arena ball. Quick, name a spread-option quarterback that’s done anything in the NFL?

The closest one is Drew Brees, who played under a form of the spread-option at Purdue. Some of the best spread-option quarterbacks in recent memory have been total washouts in the NFL. Alex Smith, Michael Robinson, Vince Young, to name a few, have been garbage NFL quarterbacks.

In fact, when Robinson was drafted by the 49ers, he was told in no uncertain terms he would be a wide receiver, not a quarterback.

This is one reason why Joe nearly was driven to seizures when the Bucs traded up in the first round to draft bust-in-waiting Josh Freeman. The fact that Raheem The Dream is even discussing starting him in Week 1 is enough for Joe to try to chug a bottle of Bushmills.

Albert Breer of SportingNews.com discusses the difficulty spread-option quarterbacks have in trying to learn NFL offenses. He even invokes Freeman’s name.

Josh Freeman, QB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A bit of a raw prospect to begin with, Freeman needs to learn to play under center and go through his progressions when the first read isn’t there.

Yes Josh, this isn’t the Big XII where most if not all of your receivers were wide open (and you still struggled). Joe has seen better defenses watching Largo rec league flag football than he witnessed in the Big XII.

2 Responses to “Son, This Isn’t The Big XII”

  1. Kirk Says:

    Okay, enough is enough. I have read your bust-in-waiting crap long enough. Give the kid a chance. Maybe he will succeed or maybe not, but damn dude, can’t you cut the guy a little slack? What you gonna say if he does turn out to be a good QB?

  2. Joe Says:

    >>> What you gonna say if he does turn out to be a good QB? <<<

    Kirk:

    Joe has gone on record a number of times that if Freeman — who Joe truly hopes succeeds but Joe has serious reservations — ever makes the Pro Bowl, Joe will happily buy his jersey.