The contract status of Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman has been well chronicled this offseason, but we’ll offer one more reminder that he’s entering the final year of his contract with no plans for negotiations on an extension for those who might have been consumed with the just concluded NBA season, Game of Thrones or something else altogether.
Freeman acknowledged that this is the biggest year of his professional career during an appearance on WDAE, but said that he’s feeling no added pressure because of his contract status. Freeman says that he knows himself well, including the knowledge that he’s content to leave everything out on the field and then let the chips fall where they may come next offseason.
“I’m excited about getting this year going,’' Freeman said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “It has nothing to do with...a contract year, finding out, oh, is he signed for this? What happened? I know God has got a plan for me, it’s all going to work out in the end. If I just give it the best I’ve got regardless...if I give it the best I’ve got and the Buccaneers say, ‘Ah, we don’t think he can play for us,’ at the end of the year and every other team in the NFL does and I end up wherever I end up doing whatever, I’ll be content because I’ll know I gave it the best I had.”
If Freeman somehow puts together a 2013 season that leaves all 32 teams without interest in his services, he won’t have much choice but to be content with his fate. Of course, that seems about as unlikely as Warren Sapp saying something complimentary about Michael Strahan so we’re guessing Freeman won’t have to go wandering the world in search of adventure come 2014.
Whether he stays in Tampa is a bit less clear, but Freeman’s best has been pretty good and a full season of it would make it hard for the Bucs to look elsewhere for a solution at quarterback.