Josh Freeman: Why the Tampa Bay Buccaneers star quarterback should improve in 2012

It's no secret that the 2012  Tampa Bay Buccaneers  season will stand or fall with  Josh Freeman's  success. Will he be the quarterback who threw 25 touchdowns and 6 interceptions in 2010, or will he be the guy who led the league in turnovers last season?  Football Outsiders appears to have found one reason to be optimistic about the young quarterback's future : pass pressure. According to their game charting, Josh Freeman faced pass pressure on 27.3% of all plays in 2011. Only five quarterbacks faced pressure on a higher percentage of the snaps. The Bucs hope to have combated that problem through the addition of All-Pro  Carl Nicks  and by moving left guard  Jeremy Zuttah  to center, a more natural position for him.

More importantly perhaps, Josh Freeman was also the quarterback least affected by pass pressure. Obviously every quarterback plays worse when he's pressured, but the difference between his performance under pressure and his performance without pressure was tiny compared to other quarterbacks around the league. The problem for Freeman apparently isn't that he can't handle pressure, it's that he wasn't productive in the offense as a whole. That should be easier to fix with the addition of new playmakers like  Vincent Jackson  and  Tiquan Underwood , although there's always the possibility that Freeman will continue to make stupid decisions with the football.

See what Football Outsiders had to say at  http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2012/2011-pressure-plays-offense

View the original post on the Bucs Nation blog:  http://www.bucsnation.com/2012/8/1/3212964/pressure-stats-show-why-josh-freeman-should-improve-in-2012