Freeman says he signed to compete for starting role

One of the first players to reports for Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp Friday at One Buc Place was the team's new $36 million man, quarterback Josh Freeman.

Freeman signed a five-year $36 million contract early Friday morning and made it sound as if he might have left some money on the table in an effort to assure that he got into camp on time.

"I expressed to my agent that one of my main goals is to become a starter for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the best way to do that is to be in camp on time,'' Freeman said. "So that was definitely something where maybe there was a little compromise, but it ended up working out.''

Freeman said he's been hitting the playbook hard and is ready to compete with Luke McCown and Byron Leftwich for the starter's job. He said he understands, however, that the Bucs may have a different plan for him right now.

"That's all the coaches' decision,'' Freeman said when asked about battling for the starter's job. "I'm just going to come in and give them every reason I can to start me.''

Terms of the deal were not released by the club but ESPN reported that the deal was for $36 million and included $10.245 million in guarantees.

Freeman was chosen in the first round (17th overall) of the 2009 NFL Draft out of Kansas State. Freeman, who entered the draft after his junior season, is the first Kansas State quarterback ever drafted in the first round and just the fifth Wildcat overall to be selected in the first round.

His 8,078 yards passing at Kansas State shattered the previous school career-record of 6,208 yards by Lynn Dickey from 1968-70. Freeman also broke Dickey's old KSU all-time mark of 501 with 680 pass completions, and his 1,151 pass attempts surpassed Dickey's previous record of 994 attempts.

Freeman posted a career passing efficiency rating of 124.74, seventh-best in school history, and threw for 44 touchdowns, setting a new KSU career record. He also ran for 20 touchdowns, which tied for ninth in school history. His career pass completion percentage of 59.0% is tops in school history. Freeman also became the first player in school annals to register over 3,000 yards in total offense twice in a career with 3,313 yards in 2007 and 3,349 in 2008.