The Tampa Bay Buccaneers think they finally have a franchise quarterback, in Kansas State's Josh Freeman. They very well might, but that doesn't make him a good fantasy football option for this coming season. In fact, I don't think he should be drafted in any league as of right now. The Bucs currently have Byron Leftwich, who will probably be starting this season, while the rookie is brought along, a la Carson Palmer waiting behind Jon Kitna in Cincinnati. It's possible for the Bucs to cut Leftwich -- since they didn't give him a signing bonus it wouldn't cost them any money -- but most in the know believe Freeman's not ready to immediately come in and start.
Even if Freeman does win the starting job out of camp, though, he's going to be brought along slowly. The Bucs offense will heavily rely upon the running game, of which they have added Derrick Ward to the battered duo of Earnest Graham and Cadillac Williams. Like nearly all rookie quarterbacks, you can expect Freeman to be either mistake-prone or handled with some incredibly tight kid gloves.
Thus, I don't see any reason to rank Freeman as better than a QB3 in the biggest of yearly fantasy leagues.
The Bucs core for the offensive future lies in Freeman, Ward, Antonio Bryant and Kellen Winslow. He does have the tools to develop into a quality fantasy quarterback, but it's likely he'll never get better than being a low-end QB1 option. Thus, he's worth a shot in dynasty fantasy leagues, but not keeper leagues where you only hold onto a small handful of players.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-26-2009 @ 5:58PM
buccsr#1 said...
i think it was one of the better moves the buccs have made in a long time, even though they usually stock pile qb's they mostly are maybe backup quality at the most and the last time they even had a qb at their number 1 spot was trent dilfer a "few" years back and i think hell be a great addition to the team.
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