Josh Freeman will visit New York Giants
Josh Freeman (12) drops back to pass against the New York Giants. Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
The New York Giants are in the market for another backup quarterback, and they are working out one of the top available options. Per a source close to the Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman, the Giants will work out former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Minnesota Vikings quarterback Josh Freeman next week, and the workout could take place “as early as Tuesday”.
Freeman was a disaster last season with the Buccaneers before being released, and he wasn’t much better in his one start with the Vikings, which came against the Giants. He wasn’t prepared to play in that game, though, as he didn’t understand the team’s playbook well enough, and he also suffered a concussion in that outing. The Vikings never gave him another chance that season, and one of the greatest mysteries of the 2013 season is why the Vikes didn’t give him another chance. They essentially wasted $2 million by consistently bypassing him as an option for Matt Cassel and Christian Ponder, even though they already knew what they had in both of those limited quarterbacks.
The Chicago Bears worked out Freeman and the Raiders once had some interest in him before trading for Matt Schaub, and it’s clear that Freeman’s market is extremely limited. Both the Bears and Giants make sense as landing spots for Freeman, because he is a talented QB who once excelled for the Bucs under Greg Olson and could bounce back with better coaching. Ben McAdoo and Tom Coughlin are both good coaches in New York, but Chicago takes the cake with QB whiz Marc Trestman, who worked wonders with Josh McCown last season. It will be interesting to see where Freeman lands, but these two teams are clearly his best options. The Giants already have Ryan Nassib as a quality backup to groom, so the Bears might be his best shot to learn behind Jay Cutler, who also gets injured more than the Giants franchise QB (even if he did suffer a nasty ankle sprain at the end of the season).