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Freeman Already What Alex Smith Hoped To Be

This weekend the Tampa Bay Bucs bring their 6-3 playoff caliber team to Candlestick to take on the 3-6 49ers. While the Niners continue their scratching and clawing to stay relevant in the NFC, the Bucs, led by young second-year quarterback Josh Freeman have their own fight to man-up for as they are battling the Falcons and Saints for the NFC South crown. Freeman, chosen in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft by a rookie head coach had a rocky first year leading the Bucs to last place in their division. Sound familiar? It should, the 49ers in 2005 under rookie head coach Mike Nolan selected Alex Smith in the first round of the 2005 NFL draft who helped them to last place in their division after throwing one touchdown against 11 interceptions.

But that is about where the similarities end, because while both will be in uniform this Sunday at 1 PM, Freeman will be under center while Alex Smith will be on the sideline holding a clipboard (again). Both players were targeted to help resurrect their franchise from the sewers of the NFL and back into contention. In just one year, Freeman has done just that. With 12 touchdown passes and just five interceptions, the Bucs have a quarterback that can do more than just manage the game but can use his arm and legs to be dangerous enough to make defenses respect the Bucs passing game, allowing the running game to develop, which is now being centered around a former 49er training camp escapee, running back LeGarrette Blount who ditched the Niners earlier this year for a chance at a better spot on a team’s depth chart. Essentially, Freeman is doing in his second year what Alex Smith has not been able to do by his sixth year.

Freeman, like Smith, came from a school with a smaller football program in Kansas State. Though recruited by Nebraska, Freeman started at QB in his freshman year for K-State, the first time for the school since 1976, and was the only true freshman in the country to lead his school to a bowl game in 2006. He would go on to set school passing records before being taken by Tampa Bay with the number 17 overall pick in 2009 with a year of college eligibility left. It wasn’t until November in his rookie season that he was tagged to start for the Bucs, but it was quite a memorable one as Freeman ended an 11-game losing streak for Tampa Bay by throwing 3 TD’s in a come-from-behind win against the Packers.

This season, Freeman has posted a QB rating of above 100 three times and has turned the ball over about as infrequently as any starting quarterback in the NFL. Alex Smith, meanwhile, continues to be a “work in progress,” is injury prone, is shy to stay in the pocket, has trouble managing the game, and though has better offensive weapons in Vernon Davis, Michael Crabtree, and Frank Gore, does not have a QB rating above 100 this season over seven games started and led the Niners to just one win against six losses. Six years removed from his first round selection at the draft, Smith has shown little improvement and only flashes of potential, spotty at best.

The lesson that can be learned is that Josh Freeman has shown that two years as a starter is enough time for one to determine whether a QB is a capable starter. For six years Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary have been demanding ownership and fans to wait in a holding pattern while Alex Smith develops, pointing to flashes of skill in an otherwise dismal career, helping Alex Smith avoid being tagged as a first round flop. Yet across the country, a similar QB from a similar school going to a similar terrible team trying to build has answered in less than two years that it can be done. A young quarterback can indeed excel by his sophomore year and guys like Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco are not on a short list of young quarterbacks that have “it”. They have “it” by the time they are finishing their second season, like Josh Freeman. Unlike Alex Smith who does not have “it” by his sixth season but is still very much a potential starting quarterback for the 49ers at the nearest speed bump Troy Smith comes to.

This Sunday Josh Freeman comes to town and is yet another young quarterback the 49ers could have drafted in the last six years while they were waiting for Alex Smith to emerge from his work in progress.

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