There have been comparisons that Freeman is similar to Flacco. And that Freeman’s potential just needs time to work out his inconsistencies. With that premise, why waste a pick for this draft, spend extra cash for a FA QB, or trade assets for a QB. I hope to dispel that notion.

*Stats pulled from ESPN site.

Flacco has one more year in the NFL than Freeman, actually a year and a half since Freeman did not play the whole 2009 season. Yet, there are enough numbers to compare if Freeman is destined to follow the path set by Flacco. From the aforementioned stats, focus on the Pass TD and INT stat information between the two gun slingers. Flacco is quite consistent at throwing 20 or more TD’s as well as kept his INT to 12 or less in all of his five years. Whereas Freeman’s results remind you of an Animaniacs shows, they’re everywhere! Nothing is consistent. Then look at the completion percentages: Freeman’s difference between highest percentage to lowest percentage is larger than Flacco’s difference; Flacco’s lowest completion rate is 57%, which is higher than Freeman hitting 54% twice in his career.

There is another factor brought up in another post stating that Flacco may have had a better offensive line. Baltimore’s offensive line look as though they’re good at providing a good run game, but I don’t think they give Flacco that much time to throw at all. Freeman has not been sacked as many times in one season as Flacco’s lowest sack total. And yet with being sacked 30 or more times, Flacco’s decision making has prevented him from throwing over 12 INT’s in all five seasons of running for his life for lack of an offensive line. Freeman has more 17 or more INT seasons than below it; could that 2010 season be a fluke for Freeman?

Another aspect to this conversation is who is the focal point of their offense? For the past two seasons, Flacco’s throwing 54% on most of the plays, up from 50%. He is being relied upon more and yet the Ravens are a running team, but throwing more often is affecting his accuracy by throwing over 500 attempts. In Freeman’s short career, the past two seasons have shown that he is made the focal point of the offense with about 60 percent of the plays made for Freeman gunning it. Oddly enough, when he’s not the focal point (2010 season), as he throws closer to 50% and the team runs the other half of the time, Freeman’s decision making netted him with the lowest INT rate in the league for 2010.

Comparing Freeman to Flacco in an effort to reveal a similar destiny would seem highly improbable. Flacco is very consistent throughout his five years. Even when there was an OC change last year, it didn’t change his decision making skills, but he improved his completion percentage from his lowest rate the previous season. (In doing this research, I'm more impressed with Flacco with his consistency, especially when comparing him to Freeman.) Freeman is inconsistent and seems unable to reproduce the ability to take care of the ball as he’s thrown 22 and 17 INTs in consecutive years after only throwing 6 INTs. Then Freeman’s completion percentage took titanic drop from 62% to 54% between seasons.

I don’t know how the Buccaneers’ organization not want to look for a possible replacement in the draft this season so we have an understudy for a whole year or another veteran that can push Freeman for the starter position. It’s possible to improve Freeman’s output, but that’s dependent on who’s calling the offense. If the staff forces Freeman to throw plenty like the previous two years, then do not expect a different result. That would be the Einstein’s definition of insanity. It’s difficult to refute results.