Help me understand the Freeman move

[GoldenBear91]

So we pick up this FReeman kid. He is getting 8 million from the Bucs. The VIkes are given him 2 million for 10 games (gross) and he is not under contract to come back?!?

So we are paying 2 Million to a guy for ten games that isn't promised to come back and if he does come back it doesn't look like it isn't going to be cheap. So with the investment made we really have no other choice than to play him now even if it make NO SENSE football wise to expect a guy to learn everything and get the timing down in 12 days...

What's the upside? We like him and decide to pay him big bucks for a new contract that really Freeman should be grateful to get anything after falling from grace in Tampa. Was there a huge demand for this guy? Were teams chomping at the bit to get him that we had to pay him 2 million for 10 games. I really do NOT understand this situation.

Help me understand this. This only seems like a good deal for Freeman...he gets paid by TWO teams and doesn't have to wait for another chance t show he still belongs in the NFL.

[Hunter Morrow]

Frazier got desperate after the Cassel loss. He thought that Freeman starting could be a career saver for him.
He deliberately de-activated a healthy QB who played well in this team's only win in order to forcer Freeman
for 4 quarters and hope for some magic to happen.

50+ passes, sub 200 yards, no points scored offensively, obviously the magic did not happen.

This was career-saving desperation. Cornered rats bite and all that, but all he did was bite the fans.

[indianation65]

In all seriousness, nobody, nobody at all, thought he'd be this bad even after so little time on the practice field with a new team.

...wisdom

[S197]

Help me understand this.

I'll try my best.

[GoldenBear91]

yea, I guess that could make sense. desperate time call for desperate measure. it just seems so odd to me. Huge investment in Freeman, no long term contract, and still I'm wondering who else wanted the guy? Why so much money?

[dkoby]

I actually think Spielman saw some perceived value in Freeman as in NFL currency. I think he saw an opportunity to put a guy on the roster that someone might get desperate for and trade some pick for. Now this game wont help in his value, but I think that is what he was really doing. I think that no matter what happened this year, Speilman was going to draft a high round QB in May.

[GoldenBear91]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200000 ... gs-in-loss

[Demi]

yea, I guess that could make sense. desperate time call for desperate measure. it just seems so odd to me. Huge investment in Freeman, no long term contract, and still I'm wondering who else wanted the guy? Why so much money?

Bills and Raiders were also pushing hard for him.

Frazier got desperate after the Cassel loss. He thought that Freeman starting could be a career saver for him.

The Minnesota Vikings were the best opportunity for Josh Freeman to get what he wanted the most; a chance at starting. However, Vikings head coach Leslie Frazier did not want the team to sign Freeman, according to NBC Sports’s Shaun King, who is a former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback. King told this news to the Ron and Ian show, via Joe Bucs Fan.

Here’s the quote from Shaun King provided by Joe Bucs Fan, “They tried to get Josh to sign a two-year deal. But Josh and his camp wanted to just stay with the rest of this season. Leslie Frazier, you know, won’t handle it like Greg Schiano did, but Leslie Frazier really wasn’t in favor of bringing Josh Freeman in. This was [general manager] Rick Spielman and the owner who overruled the head coach and said, ‘No. We’ve kind of figured out what Christian Ponder is. We want to see what Josh Freeman can bring this team.’”

This is on our impatient criminal owner and our incompetent general manager. Just like the Ponder mess in the first place.

[Reignman]

Well Frazier didn't want Freeman, so he deactivates the only QB that has looked good for us and then throws Freeman to the wolves. Frazier sent a huge "F you" to Spielman on national TV knowing his days are numbered. That's my take. I don't know how else to explain the worst Viking game I think I've ever seen.

[Webbfann]

And the Freeman move probably cost us last week's game too. How? By throwing disorder into a team that had finally won and was starting to feel good about their QB and their chances. Finally, Ponder was gone (can you imagine how happy some of them must've been???), and before he had even made his second start everyone knew the rug was pulled out from under Cassel. And they performed like the rug had been pulled.

I'm sure if Frazier and Spielman are here Sunday, it will cost us that game too too.

[PurpleKoolaid]

Freeman is on Spielman. After we got him, Fraizer had no choice but to play him. For those of you thinking Spielman is a great GM, take a real long look at our QBs, and the rest of the roster. Yeah, I think Fraizer is way over his head as HC, but so is Spielman.

[GoldenBear91]

Well I guess if the Bills and Raiders were stirring it up a bit I can see the insane amount of money for a partial season. I like the upside Freeman could have but we aren't sure we'll get anything out of this . it's all up for grabs anyways if we don't pay him again in ten games.

[Funkytown]

Well Frazier didn't want Freeman, so he deactivates the only QB that has looked good for us and then throws Freeman to the wolves. Frazier sent a huge "F you" to Spielman on national TV knowing his days are numbered. That's my take. I don't know how else to explain the worst Viking game I think I've ever seen.

Nice theory.

Where was the bigger "F you" to pull him during the third quarter and have Ponder attempt to lead us to victory?

Freeman was thrown to the wolves alright. The looks on everyone's faces. Holy cow. If the team wasn't lost before, it is OFFICIALLY gone. Anyone else catch that AP was talking to Ponder at the end of the game? Like it or not, Ponder was their guy--and they had to watch their team get humiliated on national television for "business" and a guy the team isn't even loyal to. Boy oh boy.

[Reignman]

Nice theory.

Where was the bigger "F you" to pull him during the third quarter and have Ponder attempt to lead us to victory?

Forgive me, I was trying to rationalize something that's not rational haha.

But that theory would have required more thinking than Frazier is capable of. And don't forget, it never occurs to Frazier that he can go to the backup late in games. How many times was Ponder sitting at 50 yards late in winnable games and never got yanked? At Seattle and at Green Bay immediately come to mind last year. Oh that's right, we knew Webb was horrible and kept him on the roster as the #2 anyway, and that's why Ponder never got yanked lol.

[Reignman]

Anyone else catch that AP was talking to Ponder at the end of the game? Like it or not, Ponder was their guy--and they had to watch their team get humiliated on national television for "business" and a guy the team isn't even loyal to. Boy oh boy.

I don't think Ponder was their guy because AD and Jennings were openly happy when Cassel got the start vs Pittsburgh. And their comments suggested they had more confidence in Cassel than Ponder. If anyone is their guy I would say it was Cassel, the only QB that has looked good and won for us this year. The guy that was inexplicably listed as inactive for the game.