Josh Johnson is our QB.. for now.

In Yasinskas’s latest Tampa Bay mailbag post, Pat shits a little bit more on Josh Johnson and further provides me with more ammo against his credibility as a contributor to “the worldwide leader in sports.”

JRozz in Tampa writes: "Josh Johnson is the real deal if you look at the game and how many drops Clayton and Bryant had he would of had an even better one he stayed in the pocket as long as he could to find open guys and scrambled when he needed to.”

To which Patty replies, Hey, I also like some of the things I’ve seen out of Josh Johnson. But, seriously, what have you truly seen out of him to make you think he’s the starter for this team for the next decade? I think he’s shown he can be a very nice backup quarterback and he may even develop into a quality starter down the road – somewhere else. How can you judge Josh Freeman before he’s ever taken a snap?”

Now I’m not going to go ahead and say that JJ is our franchise, because it’s too early to even consider it. The problem I have with Yasinskas is that he’s gone and out made the call on him already, while saying that we can’t judge Freeman. Hypocritical much, Pat? When you wrote this, Josh Johnson had only two starts in his career and one of them was against the heavy blitz of the Philadelphia Eagles. Yeah, he threw a couple interceptions, but it was his second career start and he also made some really nice plays. He was able to develop a really nice connection with Kellen Winslow, and that should prove to be a very valuable relationship, because a reliable tight end is the QB's best friend, outside of a strong running game.

This week wasn’t as impressive, though. I think he was worried about his interceptions last week and held on to the ball for too long, which ironically caused a few potential turnovers and an actual one as well. He still showed some poise in the pocket, extending the play and waiting until the last second to take off and run. Even if my quarterback can run a 4.40 second forty yard dash, I want him to throw the ball before he runs.

I think Josh Johnson’s got the football smarts to go along with all of that athletic ability and make a difference on this team, but he’ll never reach that point if we don’t give him the chance to. Unfortunately, I think next week in jolly old England against the Patriots will be his last start. We come home from England to our bye week, and that seems like a logical time to put in “the future” while the team will likely be 0-7. Josh Freeman is our 1st round quarterback, but he shouldn’t be given the job by default; it should be an open competition, because we need to find some stability at the most important position on the team if we want to sustain success. I don’t care if it’s the 1st rounder or the 5th, as long as they get the job done.