A few years ago, Josh Freeman was the talk of the league. He was making significant strides as a quarterback, and he was the center of dozens of different starting battles and team controversies during his career. Within the span of the last few years, however, he has gone from being one of the most talked-about quarterbacks in the game to being almost entirely forgotten. What happened to him? Did he decide to retire from football? (That would be sort of surprising, seeing as he wouldn’t even be thirty years old yet.) In this article, I’ll talk about what caused Josh Freeman to drop into obscurity, and what he has been up to in 2016. Let’s investigate more closely.
Josh Freeman’s Early Career
Josh Freeman was born in January 1988, in Kansas City, Missouri. He attended high school at Grandview High School, which borders Kansas City to the south. In high school, Josh was considered an impressive NCAA prospect. During his high school career, he was able to set 10 school records, including passing touchdowns, completions, and touchdowns in a game. In three years of playing as quarterback, he was able to pass for over 7,000 yards. By the time he was in his senior year, he was considered a four-star recruit, and was rated one of the top pro-style quarterbacks in the country. He was rigorously recruited coming out of high school, but it’s worth noting that a lot of colleges wanted to bring Freeman on as a tight end. (At 6’5″ and 225 lbs, he was much larger than most college quarterbacks.) Josh had always wanted to be a quarterback in the NFL, however, so he refused all of those offers.
Ultimately, the young athlete ended up playing college football with the Kansas State Wildcats. During his freshman year, he was able to set a school freshman record by having a 52% completion rate, and 1,780 total passing yards. Not only that, but he was actually the first true freshman to start a game for the Wildcats since 1976. It’s safe to say that his freshman year was a massively significant one. Although he was able to bring Kansas State to any major bowl game wins or championships or anything like that, he still became a significant part of Kansas State history. His accumulated 8,427 total offensive yards became a school record, and he is still one of the only quarterbacks in the school’s history to have scored at least 60 touchdowns.
With a successful junior year behind him, Freeman decided to forgo his final year of college eligibility and enter the NFL draft early. In the weeks approaching the draft, NFL analysts predicts that Josh would be snatched up really early on. Quality quarterbacks are generally sought after in the first round of the draft, with desperate teams looking for a new central cog in their lackluster offense. Josh Freeman ended up being one of many quarterbacks drafted in the first round of the draft. In the 2009 NFL Draft, quarterbacks Matt Stafford and Mark Sanchez were also drafted in the first round. Ultimately, Freeman was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with their first round, 17th overall pick. With that, the rookie moved on down to South Florida.
Josh Freeman in the NFL
This would prove to be a fairly accurate prediction. Freeman was named the starting quarterback of the 2010 season, and he started in all 16 games of the season. (Although this isn’t really abnormal in the NFL, it was the first time that Tampa Bay had had a consistent starting quarterback since 2003.) Josh had a phenomenal season. With the help of offensive studs like Mike Williams and LeGarrette Blount, the Buccaneers had become one of the most impressive and surprising teams in the league. They ended their season with a 10-6 record, which immediately following their historically awful record in the year prior, was a godsend. Even though the team had put together one of their best seasons in years, they narrowly missed the playoff. They were beaten in the wild card tiebreaker by the Green Bay Packers, who would eventually go on to win the Super Bowl entirely. This was a huge blow to the team, to come so close and have nothing to show for it.
He was able to start the Vikings’ week 7 game that year, but his performance was less than stellar. In the following game, he was benched due to medical issues. Josh was forced to ride the bench for the remainder of the season. After that, Freeman’s career started to fall off of the map. He had brief stints on the roster of teams like the New York Giants, the Miami Dolphins, and even the FXFL’s Brooklyn Bolts. He didn’t actually end up seeing the field again until 2015, following a signing by the Indianapolis Colts. He was able to play for half of the team’s final game of the season, with modest statistics. What is Josh Freeman doing today, though? Let’s catch up with our favorite hapless rookie.
What’s Josh Freeman Doing Now in 2018 – Recent Updates
I still love me some Josh Freeman… the guy got a bad rap… Every team he played for he was playing from his back because he never had an offensive line and the Vikings threw him into a bon fire on a MNF game when he didn’t even know the playbook… As for somethingano, I’m glad he’s out of the NFL because all he did was try to turn the Bucs into the Rutgers… Josh we love you man and keep your head up cuz you are still one of the best QBs out there…
I gotta share part of your sentiment! 🙂 Josh was a special QB with the Bucs. Mark Dominick said before Josh’s contract year something like “I feel like I still don’t know the real Josh Freeman” which boggles my mind. Josh was one of the 5 best players on the team at that time, and at the most difficult position… once ranked a top 10 QB in the NFL. I don’t know what else you’d need to know about him! He had a few weird off-field issues but I won’t judge.
Anyway, I think it’s a shame the coach and GM (both of whom were fired) didn’t give Josh the support he earned. I was a bit let down that the Bucs would let go of a home-grown diamond in the rough like Josh. Sticking with him would have been a testament to the dedication the Bucs put into developing their players. Oh and … they replaced him with Mike Glennon and Josh McCown?? It’s sad. They got so bad that they were able to draft a great quarterback in Winston. But the kid in me wants to see how it would have played out if the Bucs would have stuck with the home-grown team they were developing with Freeman, Martin, McCoy, and David. The quarterback position is very demanding, and I get the feeling ownership wanted something other than Josh’s humble, quiet attitude.
Josh Freeman: most passing TDs in Bucs QB history, he’ll hold that record for a good while. He is also the greatest home-grown Bucs QB, at least in my lifetime. It’s a shame he hasn’t gotten a gig with other NFL teams. Even the incredibly inferior Josh McCown got another starting job in the NFL. I get the feeling other teams may share the feeling that the Bucs had when they let him go.