The junior quarterback out of Kansas State
has all the physical abilities one could ask for. He's huge at 6-foot-6, 248 pounds, he has possibly the strongest arm in this year's draft and he's still mobile enough to escape the pocket.
In just about every way, Josh Freeman resembles former first-round picks Ben Roethlisberger and JaMarcus Russell.
So the question is, with solid production the last two years, why isn't he rated as highly and lumped with Mark Sanchez and Matt Stafford as the top quarterback in the draft?
To continue...
Strengths
Physically, there isn't a more perfect prospect in the draft than Freeman. He can make all the NFL throws, and with his size and speed, he should make a difficult target to bring down for any NFL defender.
Some have criticized Freeman for coming out early when he could have been the number-one overall pick next year, but he still has three years under his belt as a starter.
After taking his lumps as a freshman, throwing six touchdowns to 15 interceptions, he improved drastically as a sophomore. He threw for 3,353 yards with a 63.3 completion percentage, 18 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Again, he showed improvement as a junior, throwing 20 touchdowns to just eight interceptions, though his total yardage went down as did his completion percentage by almost 5 percent.
Also, much like Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler, Freeman received little help from his college teammates. Kansas State finished 5-7 his junior year.
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Weaknesses
Freeman's weaknesses aren't as numerous as his strengths, but they're all the more glaring. His weaknesses are mainly two: accuracy and decision-making.
While he had a good completion percentage his sophomore year, Freeman's accuracy has always been, at best, erratic. His junior year, he had three games with a sub-50 completion percentage.
As far as his decision-making goes, Freeman has kept the interceptions low, but he has a bad habit of locking onto his receivers, relying on his great arm to make all the plays. This won't fly in the NFL.
For all his size and athletic ability, if Freeman can't release the ball quick enough in the NFL, he'll get murdered in the pocket by opposing defenses.
How does he fit in Seattle?
He doesn't, pure and simple. Freeman is just not a good fit for the West Coast offense. If the 'Hawks try to make him fit, then they'll likely have little success.
Freeman needs to go to a team with a wide-open passing attack, which will allow him to spread the field with his big arm and make easy reads, basically an NFL version of the spread offense.
Unless Seattle plans on completely re-tooling the offense to fit Freeman's gifts, then they'll probably be looking elsewhere for a quarterback.
Basically, putting him in the West Coast offense would be like putting Michael Vick in one. And that'd be stupid, right? Ha ha... oh yeah.
He's a great fit for somebody, just not for the 'Hawks.
Draft position
When he first declared, Freeman was regarded as a second-round pick, but as there exists no late first-round talent, he's crept into that region.
With his physical gifts, Freeman could even reach as high as the top 15, though that's unlikely. Currently, he's in a battle with USC quarterback Mark Sanchez to be the second quarterback off the board with Sanchez the favorite to win.
Freeman will either have every general manager in the NFL pulling out their hair for passing on him or just the team he landed with for picking him. I'd call him a boom or bust, but I don't believe in that term. Hey, he could end up in the middle.
Let's call him boom, bust or blah... Yeah, it doesn't quite roll off the tongue the same way.
Check out his fan site here.
Oh yeah, and here's some highlights of that rocket arm.
Reach Jeff Richards at nextseasonsports@gmail.com
