Bucs GM voices confidence in injured QB Freeman

TAMPA - The Bucs have to go with another backup plan for the second time in three days.

Bucs General Manager took the podium Monday for Raheem Morris, who's battling a stomach bug. While Morris is day to day, Josh Freeman's fractured thumb won't be completely healed by the season opener.

"It is a broken bone in his thumb," Dominik said. "He's just got to let that fuse back together. It's about the swelling, being able to grasp the football, being able the hold onto it and react with the ball.''

Handling pain will determine how effective Freeman can be as a starter against the Browns. But will the decision to start Freeman be driven by the need to sell tickets and open the year with the face of the franchise? Dominik doesn't want to weigh those factors.

"Injuries are part of it and you deal with that in every aspect of the game. I think every sport handles injuries the same way. It's just part of the nature of the beast. You just continue to prepare the guys behind them and I think our coaching staff has done a very good job with our two young quarterbacks in Josh Johnson and Rudy Carpenter. I think they both played their best game this last week, so you just have to prepare the guys behind them to step up if that were to happen. But certainly, we're looking forward to Josh being out there against the Cleveland Browns.''

The third preseason game is the most important and the one game that traditionally the veterans play the most. With the loss of one Josh, can the Bucs afford to lose a second Josh? Will that change the game plan for Jacksonville?

"The coaches still felt like going along with the same plan we always have and just letting Josh Johnson run with the first team and let him run for awhile just to get everybody prepared and ready to go for a regular season game,'' Dominik said. "There's not reason to stop that right now.

"The thing about Josh Freeman that probably a lot of people are concerned about, and we're not, is that he has spent an inordinate amount of time, obviously as you all know, with the offseason program here -- every day he possibly could. Sure, it's disappointing he may not be able to practice this week. But the kid has made a lot of progress throughout the whole offseason. All that work is not for shame. So, four or five days, five or six days versus what he put into the off-season, I'm confident where he's at.''

What condition Freeman's hand will be in come September 12 right now is a complete guess.