Associated Press
MONTREAL — The Montreal Alouettes have signed former NFL quarterback Josh Freeman to a two-year deal, the team announced Saturday.
The 30-year-old pivot was a first round pick (17th overall) of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2009 NFL Draft after a productive career at Kansas State University.
In four seasons with the Bucs, Freeman started 59 games before spending time with the Minnesota Vikings and Indianapolis Colts. In 61 career games, Freeman finished his NFL tenure with 13,873 yards and 81 touchdowns on 57.6 per cent passing.
“We are very happy to welcome Josh in the Alouettes family. He has had success at every level and we feel he is a great addition to our team,” said Alouettes general manager Kavis Reed. “Josh has talent, speed and size that will make him very interesting to watch and we feel he can run our team’s offence.”
During his time in Tampa, he set many franchise records with the Buccaneers, including highest QB rating in a season (95.9 in 2010), highest completion percentage (62.8 in 2011), most touchdown passes thrown in consecutive games (15 in 2010 and 2011), fewest interceptions in a season (6 in 2010) as well as most seasons and most consecutive seasons with more than 3,000 passing yards (3).
Last season, Freeman attended a mini-camp with the Calgary Stampeders and then a workout with the Alouettes. At the time, general manager Kavis Reed said that Freeman “showed tremendous arm strength, an excellent touch on the deep balls, and excellent footwork.”
However, the two sides never came to an agreement.
Freeman heads to Montreal with Darian Durant as the incumbent starter but by no means with a lock on the position. Durant and the Als struggled last season with a 3-15 record with the team making multiple changes at quarterback down the stretch with backups Drew Willy, Matthew Shiltz and Antonio Pipkin all seeing time under centre.
