The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got kind of embarrassed by the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, and a lot of that had to do with Josh Freeman continuing to get over his shoulder injury. But according to Stephen Holder at the St. Petersburg Times, the Bucs and coach Raheem Morris won't blame the performance on the shoulder injury.
“Obviously, he didn’t play well,” coach Raheem Morris said. “But you put him out there. You’ve got to play him. He was healthy. We make no excuses about it. He took a couple (hits) and was able to get back up. . . Obviously, you can’t say (he played) without pain. He played through it. He’s a fighter. This guy is for his team. He wants to go out there and win for them. But we won’t make excuses that he had bad throws because of his bad shoulder. We had bad throws because of decision-making. I wouldn’t put him out there if he wasn’t ready to go.”
Freeman was supposed to be the Buccaneers franchise player and one of their best heading into the year, but he hasn't lived up to expectations at all. The shoulder injury is likely a big part of that, but Freeman has to do a better job when he is on the field.