The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have not gotten off to the start they imagined they would have this season and after Josh Freeman was benched by Greg Schiano for Week 4 in favor of rookie Mike Glennon, many have speculated that he will be traded and one possibility could be the Minnesota Vikings.
According to ESPN.com, Freeman was benched in favor of Glennon for the Week 4 game against the Arizona Cardinals, as the team is 0-3 and heading into a bye and Schiano is hoping to get the record to 1-3 any way possible before taking the break in Week 5. The team is one of a handful at 0-3 and it's not good company, as the Giants, Jaguars and Vikings are all 0-3, as are the Steelers, who will play the winless Vikings in London on Sunday.
The team opted for Glennon against the Cardinals and now he will get his first start as a rookie and he will be the third player to start at quarterback in his first year this season, along with EJ Manuel and Geno Smith. The fact that Glennon is starting is not good news for Freeman, who Schiano has reportedly been unhappy with leading back to last season and since Schiano was not part of the regime that drafted him, he has no ties to the player beyond him being on the roster.
Schiano knows that he is on thin ice now and clearly he is trying to get things back on track with Glennon. During his time at NC State, Glennon was a star and he looked good in the combine and fell to the Bucs, being taken on the back end with Ryan Nassib, Matt Barkley and Tyler Wilson later in the draft. Teams have plenty of time to look at trades and Pro Football Talk is reporting that the Buccaneers are willing to deal their former first round pick.
Freeman was taken as the 17th pick in 2009 behind Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez and now he is being benched for a player that was taken in the third round this past year. Freeman now joins Sanchez as players that are basically busts from that draft and after showing progress over the past couple seasons, including last year when he threw for over 4,000 yards, Freeman has done nothing but regress this season.
Freeman is not even completing half of his passes and he wasn't above 50 percent or 300 yards in any game this year. Freeman has just two touchdowns to three interceptions and he has thrown a pick in every game this season. Freeman was named a team captain last season, but not this year and there was some controversy involving Schiano about that and now Freeman could be gone for good.
Pro Football Talk says that the tough thing in trading Freeman is the fact that most teams do not need a quarterback and with him being a free agent after this year it could be harder as well. The Jaguars and Browns could be involved and one team PFT mentions are the Vikings, who are 0-3 and have not been getting the production they want from Christian Ponder.
The Vikings may not want to make a drastic move like that when they have Matt Cassel on the roster as well, but at 0-3 they could be feeling desperate. Freeman could fit in the mold of a Daunte Culepepper when he was on the Vikings, as he has a big cannon for an arm. Those three teams are the likely only options if the Bucs want to trade Freeman. And forget the Raiders, they just traded for a QB in Matt Flynn.