After the Minnesota Vikings picked Josh Freeman off the street during the middle part of last season, it was widely expected that he would start multiple games for the team. After all, this was a quarterback that had thrown for over 4,700 yards and 27 touchdowns for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the prior season.
It didn’t take long for Freeman to get his opportunity with Minnesota. Just over a week after signing him, Leslie Frazier and Co. started Freeman against the New York Giants. He responded by putting up one of the worst statistical games in the modern history of the league for a quarterback. Freeman didn’t appear for even another down in Minnesota.
With very little prep time and no understanding of the playbook, Freeman was put in a no-win situation against the Giants in that Monday Night Football game. He responded by completing 20-of-53 passes for 190 yards with an interception and zero touchdowns. Freeman’s 3.6 yards per attempt ranked among the five-worst in that category for a quarterback with a minimum of 30 pass attempts since 1981. He also overthrew receivers a ridiculous 16 times in the outing.
How could the Giants possibly come away impressed with that performance? After all, they saw firsthand what most of us saw on the television. Freeman’s inability to do anything against what had been a bad defense forced many onlookers too eventually turn away from one of the worst nationally televised games in recent history.
Apparently the Giants were more impressed than we first imagined. They signed Freeman to a one-year contract on Wednesday.
Freeman will presumably compete with Ryan Nassib and Curtis Painter for the primary backup job behind Eli Manning, but no one here really believes that those two stand a chance. In reality, Freeman is coming in to be the backup to Manning. Its a high-reward, low-risk move for Tom Coughlin’s team. Freeman won’t find himself as the Giants starter barring an injury to Manning or some other unforeseen circumstance.
He will, however, be able to learn from one of the true professionals at the quarterback position and could potentially take over should something happen to Manning down the road. Heck, it isn’t like Manning himself is lighting the world on fire. A disastrous early-season performance from the two-time Super Bowl champion could lead the New York media to speculate on his future with the team or even force the Giants’ hand in order to get something started if the team is out of contention later in the season.
In any event, Freeman to the Giants makes a ton of sense at this point. At the very least, he’s an upgrade over Nassib and Painter. That’s what the Giants are expecting from him. Anything more than that would be icing on the cake. Anything less than that, and Freeman will be getting his walking papers, once again.
Photo: Joe Camporeale, USA Today