Bruce Kluckhohn USA TODAY Sports
Earlier this week, the Minnesota Vikings announced that Josh Freeman would start this week’s game against the New York Giants. Passing up inept quarterbacks Matt Cassel and Christian Ponder is a no brainer for the Vikings chance at victory.
We’re now sitting at a point in the Fantasy season where a lot of the good quarterbacks are either serving their bye this week or about to serve their bye in the next two weeks. If you only drafted one quarterback and now you’re looking through the waiver wire for a replacement this week or the next, you might be looking at Josh Freeman as a viable option.
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So is he worth grabbing? Or if you already have him on your roster is he worth starting?
On paper, we’re talking about a quarterback who saw some very nice success early in his career but his development sank and his ceiling lowered when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers changed head coaches and team culture to Greg Schiano.
Usually when a quarterback and his team lose that loving feeling and he gets shipped out of town, it lights a fire under that player to go out and prove his old team wrong.
Let’s be honest here, Freeman hasn’t had enough time to learn the Vikings playbook. I don’t think he needs to know it like the back of his hand in order for the Vikings to win. The Vikings are likely to use a heavy dose of Adrian Peterson in order to protect Freeman early. This will eventually cause opposing defenses to creep up and stack the box heavy leaving opportunities for Jerome Simpson, Kyle Rudolph and Greg Jennings all over the field.
Single coverage is a wide receiver’s best friend and it’s a great way for a quarterback who’s weak in the playbook but strong in arm to make some big plays. Sure Freeman is going to make some bad reads and throw some ugly picks at times. I still think he’s a serviceable bye week replacement.
It is especially juicy that he is going up against the New York Giants passing defense which has given up 1608 passing yards this season, ranking 25th in the league.
If you’re in need of a bye-week replacement this week and the free-agent pool has been picked over, I’d give Freeman a flier start and cross your fingers for a couple of big fourth-quarter passes.
Eric Beuning is a Fantasy Football writer for www.RantSports.com.
Follow him on Twitter @ericbeuning or add him to your network on Google.
