…mostly because of what I say below.

But your going Based off what you KNOW about him and what you SEEN Which you may think is alot, But what you fail to understand is That our Coaches and staff (Raheem and Mark) see and Know him a Thousand time’s better then anyone in this forum.

When we Traded up to get him Shows that Our staff is 100% sure that he is going to be “OUR” QB that will be successful, Are why esle would they have Drafted him? for Sh*ts and Giggles? For a Good Slap on the knee? NO! this is there job. if they Screw up They are gone.

Do you think that our staff just doesn’t want us to win? Do you think they just wanted to Trade up to get a Crappy QB? Again NO! they see something in him that we can’t untill the season starts.

Quoting you:
 

"We have to make an opinion based off of what we DO KNOW and what we HAVE SEEN."

Not all of the great QB’s were vocal leaders. Aikman wasn’t vocal and from a far Elway didn’t appear to be either. They led by example, come to think of it; Montana played that way as well.

In order for a QB to command the huddle and earn respect, a Rookie QB especially, has to do that by example. Freeman can’t come in here vocally demand this and that and he won’t as he’s said as much. Antonio Bryant said it best this off-season when he said a lot of guys have talked in the locker room but until they show it on the field he will not respect them. Freeman has to do just that. You have to have a track record on the field in the NFL prior to becoming a leader at the QB position. Otherwise your leadership falls on deaf ears. Which is why Eli Manning is starting to become more vocal, he’s excelled in the past and has a leg to stand on finally.

"To me Freeman sounds a heck of a lot like Jason Campbell. Campbell has no leadership abilities and while he may have the respect of his teammates he certainly isn’t the leader of his offense."

How can you say that definitively about Freeman? Did you follow K-State closely? I’m not calling you out, but I don’t see how you can come to this conclusion based upon conjecture from marginal film clips, draft experts, and the like. I think we can all agree Josh didn’t have the greatest talent around him at K-State, to that effect the defense gave up 35 yards a game, no amount of leadership will allow an offense to overcome that. Sure an offense can overcome that now and again hence his middle of the road win-loss record (and upset of the 4th ranked Longhorns in ’06), but sustained success is near impossible. In fact it is impossible.
 

"I also hate how much responsibility Jags is putting on his quarterbacks (taking away blocking calls from the center). This is deadly for a confused, over-whelmed quarterback."

Again man, how do you come to the conclusion that Freeman is confused and overwhelmed? He hasn’t taken the first snap with the Bucs. The same goes for McCown, if they can’t handle blocking calls they probably shouldn’t be behind the center to begin with. That should be the least of their worries, being unable to read the defense, now that could be deadly.

I’m not saying Bucs Fans can’t criticize the pick, as Joel pointed out below that’s why we have blogs like this. All I’m saying is don’t criticize the guy with baseless generalizations. Criticize all you want but base it on facts, not what you perceive to be the case. Take him to task for his td-to-int ratio, fine. Take him to task for his completion percentage, fine. But don’t tell me the guy lacks leadership, smarts, and the like.

Haha.

I like the point both you and JScott about needing consistency with the offense. If Jags is going to throw in an entirely different season, he better be committed to it for a couple of years. The double edge sword is if we succeed on offense, we lose Jags. However, Campbell is a great case for this (inconsistency). Though I think he uses that as a crutch way too much.

Quoting you:

"Freeman saying that people couldn’t possibly know some things about him is partially true and partially untrue. Let’s look at it objective, people can see how accurate he is or isn’t. Him saying that’s not something people can possibly know about him is completely wrong. Yes, he’s very close to 60%. Yes, he also could do quite a bit better. People are worried because your completion percentage in college should be higher than it is in the NFL. In the NFL, defenses are a lot more disciplined and a lot faster. Regardless of what he % was in college, we need it to be 60+ in the NFL. I have my doubts, but we’ll see. He still has time to develop."

 - We pretty much agreed there, nothing that I really disagree with. We’ll have to see along the course of a season whether he’s truly inaccurate and missing open reads or whether it was his cast around him at K-State that made his collegiate numbers suffer… Based on our K-State bloggers perspective I’ve come to the conclusion that it is the lack of coaching and talent around him that attributed to his lower numbers across the board.

“As for the criticism issue, I’m sorry, but I completely disagree with you on this one in part because of what UNFNOLE just said above. He’s going to be an NFL quarterback. There is probably no other position in sports more widely criticized. Sorry, but he’s going to have to deal with that. My second point is, as fans (or just as human beings) we have every right to criticize him. Look, some people are a little too harsh. That’s true. I’ll give you that. But some people are also delusional if they think we should all jump on the bandwagon and praise Josh Freeman as the next Joe Montana. This is the real world and the reason blogs and message boards exist in the first place. I’ve heard from no less than probably 5 different people on this site alone that we shouldn’t question him because he’s a Buc now. WHAT?!?!? Where were these people when others wanted Jon Gruden run out of town? Where were they when our starting quarterbacks went by the name of Erickson, or Testaverde, or Chandler? Where were they when we drafted people like Charles McRae? Suddenly because the Bucs drafted Josh Freeman and you (that’s the universal you here, not you specifically Jerry) happen to like the pick, I’m not allowed to voice my opinion? What’s the point in having sites like this if we can’t all say how we feel? I get that some people are just saying "he sucks, I don’t want him" and that’s not a well thought out, educated opinion, but many of us are very calm and collected about voicing our concerns and all we get back is "he’s on our team now, we should do nothing but support him." I do support him because he’s a Buc. And I will support him as a Buc. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to voice my opinion about the guy. It’s just an opinion. I have it and so do others and this is where we come to voice it.”

- When I said I was embarrassed by this fan bases reaction it was more toward the folks that are vehemently berating this selection. You see it in the message boards, sports writer’s columns’ comments section, and on sports talk radio. Fans bashing the pick because they think Freeman is a horrible pick. That we should have waited to pick him up in the 2nd round, might I add we didn’t have a 2nd round pick and this fan base really would have went into conniptions had we given up next years #1 pick like the Panthers and Broncos did to get back into the 2nd round. I’m not telling you guys not to criticize the selection, that’s fine, but let’s not go overboard here (not those of you specifically on this site, as I haven’t seen anything too ridiculous, this is directed to the majority of the fans out there though) and you see that everywhere. So much so that the G.M., Head Coach, and QB himself are fielding questions about the backlash. It’s embarrassing. What were our alternatives with the 19th pick?

“I do however agree with you 100% on the trading up thing. I could care less that we gave up a 6th rounder to move up 2 spots to take him. If he’s who team management really wanted and they felt that’s what they had to do to get him, then so be it. It’s a 6th rounder people. It’s like bashing our choices in the 7th round. Go back and look through our history of draft picks and tell me how many 7th rounders made an impact on the field. I’m not saying that to be mean or harsh, just take a step back and realize that we’re looking for potential in those late picks and don’t think Morris and Dominik are ruining the team because they think a guy was a better choice in the late round then someone we all love because we saw all of his college games on national TV.”

- At least we agree on something, ha! I kid because I care!

“I’m with you 100% on the consistency he can get by working with Jags long term. Case in point. Look at Chris Leak at Florida. Throughout his first two years, Zook and other coaches switched things up a million times and Leak – a big time recruit – looked no better than just above average. Then in his third year in comes Urban and a new system and he has to adjust again and again he looks rather pedestrian. Then during his second year in Urban’s system, he puts it all together and plays well and wins a national title. Freeman needs consistency. He needs to same coaches to work with him for a few years to help him develop. It’s the best thing for him.”

- That’s what I put all of my faith in, that Jags and his staff can develop this kid and that Josh will put in the work to make sure it sticks and happens. It’s a little telling that Freeman broke all of the previous QB’s passing records at K-State yet his Head Coach got fired. If that doesn’t speak volumes, I don’t know what does.

…because of this line…

“If he’s going to succeed in this league, he’ll have every opportunity to do so here. It’s on him.”

that’s why I’m overly excited about Freeman coming aboard. If he suffered due to a lack of talent around him in College, he should truly blossom here in Tampa as the talent is three folds better than it was in Manhattan. The coaching here as well is leaps and bounds better as well.

coaching staff to be patient? I don’t. I think at the first sign of disaster by McCown or Leftwich, Jags/Morris will bail and turn to Freeman.

…why would Freeman get the starting nod in 2010 if McCown was good enough to guide us to the playoffs? If Freeman is our starter one day, so be it. But if McCown plays well, earns the starting nod, and then is successful…well, if you all think people are critical now, just wait if one QB is named the starter even though we have one that just played well enough to get us to the playoffs.

Everyone that is in support of Freeman and truly believes he is the future might not want McCown to be too good (good, but not too good) because if he is, well then we just drafted a high priced clipboard holder. Matt Leinart Part 2.

Some folks have already mentioned it, but our former head coach, Ron Prince, was a complete and total waste. Our defense (once consistently in the top five and headlined by guys like Terence Newman) was one of the worst in the nation, and consistently gave up 50+ points during conference play. No matter what Josh was able to do (and it was a lot), it wasn’t going to be enough because he couldn’t score on every possession. Most of his turnovers were a result of pressing; trying to make the big play because we always needed one.

I’m not saying that Freeman will be a great QB in Tampa. I hope he is, and I’ll be rooting for him. However, his being a ‘winner’ has nothing to do with it because he helped us put up 35 points a game, and we still lost eighteen games over the course of his career at Kansas State.

That’s the point of my post entirely. How is he a bust based upon a video of him on a website leading up to the NFL Draft? If Tim Tebow was asked who he felt he was more like: Joey Harrington or Tom Brady, who do you think he would select?