Josh Freeman has chosen to sign with the Minnesota Vikings days after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally released him.
Freeman was also being pursued by the Buffalo Bills, Oakland Raiders, and San Francisco 49ers according to reports, before he decided Minnesota was the best place for him.
Jay Glazer reports that running back Adrian Peterson sold Freeman on the Vikings. Glazer also says GM Rick Spielman told Freeman how much he liked the quarterback around the time of the draft.
Freeman is set to make $3 million the rest of the season even though the Vikings only have 12 games left. He is expected to compete with Christian Ponder and Matt Cassel for the starting job.
As another interesting note, Glazer says the Vikings wanted Freeman to sign a two-year deal, but the quarterback chose to sign a 1-year deal because he wants to be a free agent after the season.
Even though the Vikings are paying Freeman pretty good money, I don’t see him becoming the team’s quarterback for at least four weeks. Not only does he need to familiarize himself with the team’s offensive schemes, plays, and language, but Minnesota already has two other quarterbacks of similar ability.
Cassel played last weekend threw for two touchdowns to get the team its first win of the season. He’s good enough to look decent for a few more games before they think about a switch. Ponder, meanwhile, has a fractured rib that is also reportedly near his heart. The team likely wants him to miss another month before bringing him back.
In my opinion, the Vikings are just shuffling the deck, not adding cards. Three C-level quarterbacks does not add up to one good one. They still need to find a franchise QB, and they’re probably not winning more than six games this year regardless of who’s playing QB.
