HOF QB Isn’t a Josh Freeman Fan, Falcons Gonzalez Ready for Action

On Tuesday as the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cleveland Browns named their starting quarterbacks for the regular season, one fellow starting quarterback got thrown under the bus.

It appears that Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton has doubts about Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman finding success in the NFL.

Tampa Bay QB Josh Freeman

Tarkenton said of Freeman in a WDAE radio interview via ESPN, “They’ve had him there for four years and they have question marks about you? You didn’t have question marks about Matt Ryan after his fourth year or Joe Flacco. That means they don’t think he can play. He’s not going to get magical and all of the sudden in the fifth year be Aaron Rodgers. They want (Glennon) to be able to play. The only thing that will keep him from playing is if he’s not able to learn the system and make plays.’’

Yes, rookie Mike Glennon is the competition but even as he improves, it appears he’s not quite ready to take the job away from Freeman, who is playing for it in this contract year. In last week’s 25-21 loss against the New England Patriots, Glennon went 12 for 22, 121 yards, two touchdowns and one pick.

This comes as Freeman got sacked three times in the game.

Bucs coach Greg Schiano, said of Glennon’s play via the team’s website, “He’s picking it up. It’s hard for a rookie; it’s a lot of stuff and exponentially when you put a defense like New England’s that does a lot of stuff — it’s 3-4 and it’s 4-3; it can kind of get on you. He didn’t get a lot of plays in practice. That was by the plan. He got some, but Josh was going to get most of the practice and Mike was going to get most of the game, and that was the way we wanted to do it.”

But is Tarkenton on to something?

He noted that Glennon has undergone more preseason play than Freeman and that’s a sign of things to come. Tarkenton added regarding Freeman’s lack of consistency, “He plays sometimes at a nice level. I’ve watched him a lot. He just plays god-awful. That’s who you are. It’s just a player being able to play or not play. Josh Freeman has proven to me that he can’t play.”

That’s a little brutal and in Freeman’s defense, there’s a few 2012 stats in his favor: He had 4,065 passing yards and 27 touchdowns–Bucs single-season records.

For now, it’s Freeman’s job to lose and Glennon, while appearing to know his place, is enabling the team to see they may have a second option.

Tampa Bay had a 7-9 record in 2012 and sat at the bottom of the NFC South. In this new season, the team has a 7 1/2 regular season win total (-140 o/+110 u) and -165 no to make the playoffs.

Falcons Gonzalez Ready to Hit the Field 

Atlanta Falcons veteran tight end Tony Gonzalez has been spending this presason in a “virtual training camp” and will make his debut on Saturday with the team in Game 3 against the Tennessee Titans.

Falcons TE Tony Gonzalez

Gonzalez, in an effort to spend time with his family, utilized a team-issued iPad that included all of the plays and provided an opportunity for the player to see exactly what his teammates did during their practices.

Needless to say, Gonzalez also spent time working out and his coach Mike Smith said of the player’s impending return via AJC.com, “Tony is in great shape like he always is. He’ll play just like the rest of the starters. We’re not going to have a specific number and say all starters are playing this number of snaps.”

For the Falcons, they sit at -200 to go to the playoffs and +1200 to win the Super Bowl.