TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -The start of his first season as an NFL head coach was a week away, and Raheem Morris answered question after question about how he envisions the future of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
His answers can be summed up in two words: Josh Freeman.
The 6-foot-6, 248-pound quarterback was the team’s first-round draft pick, the 17th overall selection, and will begin his rookie season as Byron Leftwich’s backup.
“Everything we do has a thought process for Freeman. Everything has to,” Morris said.
“I’m scared to say this again because I don’t want to have another picture of me on YouTube, but we are married to him,” he added. “Everything we do around that position, around the team, around this organization … it’s going to be around Freeman.”
A playoff contender a year ago – before one of the biggest collapses in NFL history cost former coach Jon Gruden and general manager Bruce Allen their jobs – the Bucs have undergone a massive overhaul under Morris.
is one that’s building for the future. Besides having 10 new starters, a new punter and different kicker, Morris switched offensive coordinators 10 days before the season opener.
Luke McCown lost a prolonged race with Leftwich for the starting quarterback job and was traded last weekend to Jacksonville to open the No. 2 spot for Freeman, who struggled during the preseason.
Ready or not, the Bucs feel that slipping Freeman in as the backup, and giving him getting additional opportunities to practice with the first-team offense, will facilitate the 21-year-old’s growth better than being No. 3 and getting most of his work with the scout squad.
“I don’t know if you say develop quicker. He’ll get more reps, which is guaranteed. He’ll prepare as a No. 2. He’ll get a chance to learn as a No. 2. He’ll get a chance to be in the meeting room as a No. 2,” Morris said.
“You’ve got to get it going faster than you normally would with a No. 2 probably because he didn’t get as many reps as we could have given him before. Now it’s got to be fast-forward training. I’ve got all the confidence in my coaching staff … that we can get that done.”
The Bucs got off to a 9-3 start last season before losing their last four games to finish 9-7 and miss the playoffs.
for tight end Kellen Winslow and signing running back Derrick Ward, who gained 1,000 yards while sharing playing time with Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw with the New York Giants last season.
Jagodzinski was fired a day before the final preseason game, replaced by quarterbacks coach Greg Olson.
Leftwich, a former first-round pick whose experience could be a benefit to Freeman, is with his fourth NFL team in seven seasons.
One of the keys to giving him an opportunity for success will be a productive running game, which Morris feels is a strong possibility with Ward, rejuvenated starter Cadillac Williams and Earnest Graham carrying the ball behind a young, improving offensive line.
Defense has been Tampa Bay’s calling card for more than a decade. But with 11-time Pro Bowl linebacker Derrick Brooks out as part of a plan to get younger and faster, a unit featuring six new starters is largely unproven and playing a new scheme under defensive coordinator Jim Bates.
“New leaders have to emerge,” cornerback Ronde Barber, the lone starter remaining from the stellar crew that led the 2002 Bucs to a Super Bowl title.
Morris, who’s known Freeman since the quarterback was a freshman at Kansas State and the NFL’s youngest coach was the defensive coordinator there, never intended for the rookie to contend for a starting job in training camp.
Freeman completed just 44.8 percent of his passes during the preseason, although he did show flashes of why the Bucs feel has the ability to be something Tampa Bay hasn’t had for a while – a franchise quarterback.
“It’s tough to win without a true No. 1 quarterback that everyone wants to rally behind,” Morris said. “We’ve had quarterbacks in spurts. Jeff Garcia had his years. Brad Johnson had his years. But other than that, we kind of hit a lull.”
Leftwich, who won a Super Bowl ring as Ben Roethlisberger’s backup in Pittsburgh last season, said he’s ready to do anything he can to help Freeman’s transition, just as quarterbacks such as Steve McNair and Donovan McNabb did for him early in his career.
“As a veteran in this league, as a quarterback, it’s almost my duty,” said Leftwich, who made 13 starts as a rookie after being selected him seventh overall by Jacksonville in 2003.
The seventh-year pro said Freeman is eager to learn, and that the former Kansas State star’s style of play reminds him of Roethlisberger.
“He’s got everything you want. You watch the film, he’s throwing the ball with guys just hanging on him. … I don’t want to compare him to Ben, but he shakes tackles like Ben,” Leftwich said. “I call Ben, ‘Houdini.’ I’ve never seen anyone get out of the stuff that Ben gets out of. You see Freeman as a rookie do some of those things. I think he has a bright future.”
quarterback who’s had his share of success and failure, not to mention a history of injuries, Leftwich also knows that future could become the present a lot sooner than the Bucs consider ideal.
“One day they’re going to give him the keys,” Leftwich said, a smile spreading across his face. “I’m just going to try to make sure they don’t give him the keys this year.”
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