Former Vikings coach Leslie Frazier now works for the team that drafted most-likely-soon-to-be-former Vikings quarterback Josh Freeman. And while a return of Freeman to Tampa Bay remains extremely unlikely, Frazier had positive things to say about Freeman in Frazier’s first press conference as Bucs defensive coordinator.
“Josh did a lot of good things for us in that short time that we had,” Freeman said, via JoeBucsFan.com. “Unfortunately it didn’t work out where we got him a lot of snaps in ball games. He worked as hard as he could every week to try to prepare and be ready to go. He was a pro in every sense of the word in that way.”
So why didn’t Freeman play beyond a Monday night game against the Giants, barely two weeks after he joined the team?
“[W]e made a decision to try to figure out where Christian Ponder was and also take a look at Matt Cassel as well, as we tried to determine and get some questions answered at our quarterback position,” Frazier said. “Josh got caught up in the shuffle of that. It probably wasn’t the fairest situation for him, made it difficult for him, made it difficult for all of us as we were trying to evaluate quarterbacks in an NFL season. That’s not a wise thing. But nothing to do with Josh. He prepared and worked as hard as he could to get on the field. It just didn’t work out.”
Freeman becomes a free agent on March 11. Until March 8, the Vikings have exclusive negotiating rights with him, if the new coaching staff chooses to keep him around.