Dilfer: Starting Freeman now not best for unstable Bucs

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Trent Dilfer was once in Josh Freeman's shoes.

Dilfer was a first-round selection (sixth overall) by the Bucs in 1994. He was supposed to be Tampa Bay's franchise quarterback. Dilfer played for a bad team. People could not wait for him to replace Craig Erickson, who had been in the league two years prior to Dilfer's arrival.

Freeman, a rookie, was named Tampa Bay's starting quarterback Wednesday. Dilfer thinks that decision could be a mistake.

"It would be more harmful to play him right now than to let him continue to grow and learn and train during practice," Dilfer, currently an NFL analyst for ESPN, said Tuesday before Freeman was named to start Nov. 8 against Green Bay. "My reasoning for that has nothing to do with Josh Freeman's ability, but it has to do with the lack of continuity and lack of direction the Bucs seem to have offensively. They have no identity.

"There is nothing they do great and a young quarterback needs a lot of structure in his training. He needs ownership of a small package of plays. He needs to build confidence, taking baby steps until his confidence grows. He can't be exposed to too much failure because then the demons get out. Once the demons get out, then it really stunts their growth."

Dilfer believes Tampa Bay's best chance of developing Freeman is with him on the sidelines learning from current starter Josh Johnson.

Although Johnson has struggled during his four starts - throwing eight interception, four touchdowns and being sacked 11 times, Dilfer believes Freeman can gain from Johnson's struggles.

"In most cases when a young quarterback has success, there's a sacrificial lamb that comes before him at quarterback," Dilfer said. "A good coach, what he does, and this sounds cruel, is you coach the young guy by the guy that's playing. You point out every mistake. You point out every flaw.

"You over-coach the guy that's playing, knowing that the young guy is listening and the expectations are very high, but yet he doesn't have to deal with the daily criticisms and relentless pressure that is put on that guy playing. Unfortunately, Josh Johnson needs to be that sacrificial lamb for Josh Freeman."

When Dilfer finally started in 1995, he threw 18 interceptions and four touchdowns, followed by 19 interceptions and 12 touchdowns in 1996. He said his development was curtailed after Erickson was traded to Indianapolis before to the 1995 season, saying he lost a mentor and Tampa Bay's coaching staff was in too much disarray to mold him (1995 was Sam Wyche's final season as head coach and 1996 was Tony Dungy's first). Dilfer eventually won a Super Bowl with Baltimore in 2000 and spent 14 seasons in the NFL.

While Joe Flacco (Baltimore), Matt Ryan (Atlanta), Mark Sanchez (New York Jets) and Matthew Stafford (Detroit) achieved some success as rookie quarterbacks, Dilfer believes those organization were more stable than Tampa Bay. He also said Stafford is only allowed to run a handful of plays and Detroit has not built its offense around its top pick.

Dilfer said if Tampa Bay limits its playbook for Freeman, then starting him is not a bad idea, but Dilfer still believes the best way for Freeman to reach his full potential is to stay on the bench until the Bucs develop a more consistent offensive identity.

"The Bucs as a coaching staff to me are in disarray in the sense that they don't know who they want to be offensively and the growing pains in trying to figure that out are resulting in a debacle on the field," Dilfer said. "I'm not saying they can't fix it. I'm not saying they should be fired. It's just going to take them time, but don't throw a young quarterback into that when you haven't figured it out yet."