Josh Freeman signs with Vikings

According to the report, the union referenced nine cases in which the NFL said it wold investigate a breach of confidentiality, but that discipline was never carried out -- or at least it was not announced -- as a result of any of those investigations.

Schiano has denied that he is the source of the leak, which centers around Freeman’s voluntary enrollment in the NFL’s substance abuse program. Freeman takes regular drug tests -- and says he has never failed one -- to ensure he is not abusing the fact that he’s allowed to take Adderall for his ADHD.

In his five years Freeman has thrown for a total of 13,534 yards, 80 touchdowns, 66 interceptions and a rating of 78.8.

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Silver asked if Schiano could lose the locker room, to which the player said: “Unless we start winning games ASAP, absolutely.” There were reports this offseason that a players-only meeting was conducted to discuss the team’s captaincy vote, as it was alleged Schiano rigged the player voting to ensure Freeman was not made a captain in 2013.

Raheem Morris was Schiano’s predecessor and lasted 48 games before being fired following the 2011 season. He finished his three-year tenure with a win record of 0.354. Schiano currently has a 0.350 record since taking over the reigns in 2012.

Alex Van Pelt, now the Packers’ running backs coach, worked with Freeman as the Bucs’ quarterbacks coach from 2010-2011. Freeman stands accused of committing conduct detrimental to the team, including missing a team meeting, but Van Pelt said that he never had any problems.

The Packers aren’t likely to take a stab at Freeman on the free agency market, assuming Freeman would rather go to an organization where he can compete for a starting job. Still, Van Pelt’s comments add more fuel to the theory that Schiano is losing his grip on the team. A reports by Sports Illustrated indicated that players mistrust him as a coach, and some have suggested that Schiano was behind a leaked report revealing that Freeman had entered the NFL’s drug program.

From @PewterReport:

A NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF OTHER SITUATIONS THAT NEED GREG SCHIANO:

Rumors of an impending parting of the ways escalated quickly last week after head coach Greg Schiano announced that Freeman had been benched in favor of rookie Mike Glennon, a third-round selection in the 2013 draft.

Freeman is now free to sign with any other NFL team. The Buccaneers are on the hook for roughly $6.25 million, the remainder of the guaranteed money on his contract this year. This was the final year of his initial rookie deal, and that contract did not include offset language.

Freeman was reportedly also fined for missing a team meeting and conduct detrimental to the team along with his interview, per Sports Illustrated. One theory of all these fines is the Buccaneers wanting to suspend Freeman without pay. Should they go that route and get away with it (expect the NFLPA to have something to say), they could conceivably trade Freeman and walk away without having to pay him.

All of this comes with the swirling story of Freeman being part of the NFL’s drug program. Freeman’s involvement in the program is supposed to be confidential, making the next question who leaked the story?

SI’s Andre Brandt reports that Schiano has created a Big Brother-type atmosphere in the locker room, going as far as spying on players. From MMQB:

This isn’t the first time Schiano has come under fire for his blunt behavior toward players and coaches. In September 2012, Mike Silver of Yahoo Sports reported that many in the NFL saw him as a bully even before he got hired by the Bucs. One veteran coach told Silver, “It’s his way or [expletive] you. He needs to back up a little bit, or he’s going to have a very hard time in this league over the long haul.”

The Freeman saga in Tampa has taken several strange turns this week. An ESPN report on Monday says that Freeman was in Stage One of the NFL’s drug program. Freeman fired back several hours later with a statement of his own, saying that he voluntarily entered the program after mixing up prescriptions for his ADHD medication. The NFL Player’s Association has vowed to investigate the leak. Coach Greg Schiano has denied involvement.

The Bucs have reached out to nearly every team in the league looking for a trade, but interest is mild at best.

The reports were later clarified by Dominik, who said Freeman was excused from the meeting because coach Greg Schiano wanted to speak privately with the maligned quarterback after tension between the player and coach hit a new high Monday night. Dominik said Freeman was excused until a meeting later in the day with Schiano after participating in team activities throughout Tuesday.

Glazer initially reported some of his sources think Freeman was asked not to attend the meeting to make other players think he missed the meeting on his own. Freeman reportedly overslept and missed a meeting earlier this season.

In addition to this, the NFL Player’s Association is looking into matters, as Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times reports. In a series of Tweets, Stroud outlines quotes from NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, who says the union is “sufficiently concerned with what we’ve heard to begin an investigation.”

Smith followed up by saying that “no one is going to exempt from the consequences” if the union (and the NFL) find fault in the leaking of personal information by the Buccaneers organization or otherwise.

1. J.J. Hunsecker was not a man to be trifled with. Singers, actors, and musicians went through New York’s most powerful gossip columnist to launch their careers or stay on the A-list. And he wasn’t hesitant to use his position to wage personal battles -- as in the case of a certain jazz musician he didn’t want his sister seeing.

Hunsecker is a fictional character, played by an intimidating Burt Lancaster, at the center of the 1957 film Sweet Smell of Success. Like so many bad guys, Hunsecker’s undoing came when he pressed too far, insisting on planting a bogus story about that jazz musician, even after he’d already accomplished his goal of breaking his sister’s heart.

Assuming that the Buccaneers aren’t calling the Buccaneers to work out a trade, it seems unlikely that any of the other 31 teams in the NFL would be interested in acquiring the former first rounder. Particularly, after the Buccaneers seemed to hurt the trade value of Freeman recently, according to Sander Philipse of Bucs Nation:

On the final year of the five-year, $26 million deal he signed as a rookie in 2009, Freeman has just 12 games left on the contract and is in a year where he is due to receive a $8.4 million base salary. With such a high salary that will be expiring soon, that makes Freeman little more than an expensive rental for the time being.

In a press release by his agents, Freeman says he voluntarily entered the program after getting permission to use Adderall for his ADHD. Since entering the program, Freeman said he has passed 46 drug tests. That information was not supposed to become public, but once it did Freeman explained the situation.

The full text of Freeman’s statement is below, via Pro Football Talk:

Update: Josh Freeman’s agent released a statement stating Josh Freeman voluntarily entered the drug program.

As a player in stage one of the program, Freeman is subject to random or reasonable cause testing, but is not one failed test away from a suspension. According to the report, Freeman has a temporary exception for a prescription drug that is on the NFL’s list of banned substances. A source told Mortensen that Freeman is in “good standing” in the the program.

We knew that Josh Freeman was interested in getting out of Tampa Bay after being benched, and we knew that the Buccaneers were interested in getting him out of there as well. The team even went so far as to make Freeman inactive for Sunday’s game against the Cardinals, but it turns out they’re actually going a little bit farther than just keeping him out of uniform.

With Freeman in a suite, the Bucs’ only other active quarterback is Dan Orlovsky, so things could get weird if Mike Glennon gets hurt.

For his part, Freeman said that he would have no problem moving on if necessary.

Freeman still has roughly $15 million in base salary remaining over the last two years of his contract, and the Vikings, or anyone, may not be willing to absorb the cap hit. Technically there is still a chance that the Buccaneers hang on to Freeman as a backup if they can’t find a trade partner. That said, tensions between the Bucs and Freeman don’t appear to be easing.

Williams left Tampa on bad terms. After he helped the Buccaneers win five of their last six regular-season games in 1982 to make the playoffs, owner Hugh Culverhouse refused to re-sign the quarterback over a well-documented contract dispute, to the chagrin of fans and teammates. Williams wanted a $600,000 contract, but Culverhouse would only offer $400,000, and Williams left the Bucs to join the USFL.

After letting go of Williams in 1982, the Buccaneers would go on the miss the playoffs for 15 years straight. In that span, they started 12 different quarterbacks, though none struggled as gloriously as Testaverde. Drafted No. 1 overall in 1987 coming off a Heisman Trophy campaign at Miami, Testaverde spent six years in Tampa and threw 112 interceptions to 77 touchdowns. Somehow, he would go one to play another 15 years in the NFL.

Freeman has completed only 45.7 percent of his passes this season, and dating back to last season has thrown 12 interceptions in his last six games. Schiano and Freeman’s tumultuous relationship this year has made headlines quite often in Tampa Bay, with rumors being bandied about that Schiano had rigged the captain’s vote so Freeman would not win the honor, and news that the QB had shown up late to a team photo.

Now the team is set to move on with Schiano’s hand-picked choice from the 2013 draft. Glennon was a third-round selection out of NC State, and at 6’7 will be one of the tallest quarterbacks in the league. Dominik thinks the Bucs are setting the rookie up for success as best they can.

Once Wilson transferred to Wisconsin, Glennon took over the starting job and immediately made an impact. Tossing 31 touchdowns and more than 3,000 yards in 2011, Glennon led NC State to a 9-4 record and a win in the Champs Sports Bowl over West Virginia, the first bowl win for the Wolfpack since 2005. His senior year was another successful campaign, once again throwing 31 touchdowns while passing for 4,031 yards and leading NC State to another bowl victory.

At 6’7 and 225 pounds, Glennon is the prototype for the quintessential pocket passer in the NFL. He’s tall and strong in the pocket and has an over-the-top release that allows him clear throwing lanes without danger of getting the ball batted down at the line of scrimmage. His above-average arm strength gives him the ability to make nearly all of the throws required of an NFL quarterback.

After several years of inconsistency and a rough beginning to 2013, Josh Freeman is officially out as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting quarterback. Weeks of rumored clashes with head coach Greg Schiano and an 0-3 start finally tipped the scales for Freeman, who was benched on Wednesday in favor of rookie Mike Glennon. So with his days as a starting quarterback in Tampa Bay likely over, what’s next for Freeman?

Reports that the quarterback could ask the team to trade him have been floating around for over a week, and although he has denied the rumor, it seems a trade could now be imminent whether he requests it or not. With Freeman’s rookie contract set to expire at the end of the season, the Buccaneers may try to get a return on his departure before he hits free agency.

The pressure to turn to Glennon has existed since the preseason after the rookie out of North Carolina State played well in exhibition action. There have been rumors of a rift between Schiano and Freeman, with reports stating that Freeman could ask for a trade -- a report that was denied by the veteran quarterback.

Drafted in the third round for the Bucs this past spring, Glennon passed for 4,031 yards and 31 touchdowns with N.C. State in 2012.

Freeman told Pewter Report that he just learned of the report prior to the interview. “No not at all,” Freeman said. “That’s the first I heard of it, literally was 10 seconds ago, right before I walked in here. Without a doubt I am a Buccaneer and am continuing to prepare and try and go out every week and give my team a chance to win the game.”

The Buccaneers lost to the Saints at home on Sunday and are now 0-2 on the season. Freeman has combined for 335 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions in Tampa Bay’s two games this season. However, he has a putrid 45.3 completion percentage through eight quarters of play. He has also fumbled twice, losing one.