NFL Thursday: Josh Freeman, popular all over again, and what it means to Carolina

"That's the guy who took my bike, get him!"

Remember in 2010 when Josh Freeman was awesome and owners were falling all over themselves for a piece? And the guys who had him in keeper leagues were all like: "I'm gonna win 5 super bowls because I've got Josh Freeman in the 15th round."? Then remember when the next year came and Josh Freeman looked like a drunk version of pin the tail on the donkey? And everyone dropped him like a hot potato covered in herpes? And then remember the last two games where Freeman dropped a combined 750 yards and 6 TDs and you could almost feel the collective hamstring pull of a million owners rushing to the waiver wire?

What's the point? The point is that Carolina fans and Cam Newton owners need to chill the frog out. It is not irrational or weird for a young QB to start out hot his first year in the driver's seat then come back down to earth when the league figures him out and he realizes just being huge and awesome isn't enough. So they do some more work and get smarter and start getting back to form. This is also a warning to all the saps who are going to draft Andrew Luck and RGIII WAY too high next year. Don't do it. Let some other poor bastard roll the dice on a second year regression. Because it's really not about the guy's workout regimen, or his will to win. It's about his experience. And the only way to get that is to play a bunch of games and see what works and what doesn't. So to the handful of radio turds who were suggesting yesterday that the Panthers should trade Cam for Mark Sanchez or some such nonsense, please return the mic to it's rightful owner. This is the year the Panthers pay for Cam to learn stuff, both on and off the field. Everyone will be back to slobbering all over him next season (maybe even later this season when the pressure is off). No one seriously thinks he's going to be a bust.

Tonight we'll get to see if the FreeJax movement has legs when Freeman and the suddenly resurgent VJax take their video game mode to Minnesota to test the waters against the on again off again Christian Ponder and his posse of Peterson and Percy. Wham! (Could I have thrown "purple" in there and made it more awesome? Maybe. But in alliteration, as in life, it's important to know when enough is enough.)

Since I'm starting half of this game in half of my leagues I'm figuring it will turn into a defensive struggle with neither AP nor Mike Williams being able to get much going but with the Vikings D getting absolutely schooled. Mark it down.