At No. 19, the player they might consider is Kansas State quarterback Josh Freeman.

Last week, coach Raheem Morris compared Freeman to the Steelers' two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

"I was with him for a year (at Kansas State)," Morris said of Freeman. "Absolute specimen to look at. Physical. Tall, big. Big arm. Deceptively quick, even though the 40 time says 4.8, he's got that Ben Roethlisberger effect where he's hard to tackle once you get back there, so you'd better send somebody blitzing big enough to get him on the ground. One of those deals."

The 6-foot-6, 248-pound Freeman had modest success at Kansas State. His touchdown-to-interception ratio was 44-34 and he owned a 14-18 record as a starter.

But Morris knows better than most that Freeman never had much talent around him, particularly at the receiver position.

"When I was there when he was a freshman, we had Jordy Nelson and Yamon Figurs - two pretty good players playing in this league," Morris said. "He started probably Week 5 and had a big-time game over Oklahoma State, where he won a game. Had a big-time game against Texas where he helped us win that game. He was starting to come into his own when I left. All I know is he put up big-time numbers, not big-time win production and that's a major factor for a quarterback. Whenever you're drafting a quarterback, you want to make sure he's a winner."

Of course, Freeman could be long gone by the time the Bucs make the 19th overall selection. And you should be very skeptical this time of year whenever a team speaks so glowingly about any player. The last thing you want to be is linked to the guy you plan on taking, unless you own the No. 1 overall pick.

But Morris knows if he is ever going to draft a franchise quarterback, better sooner than later. He has a two-year contract with a club option for the third season.

With Luke McCown and Josh Johnson battling it out this season, Freeman could spend a year on the bench developing.

This much we know: the Bucs don't like any of the available free agent quarterbacks. "All the guys in free agency are unproven as well," Morris said. "You're talking about the same guys we have in house already. You're talking about a guy you've seen something in maybe coming out of the draft. Maybe you predict a little bit. You're talking about drafting a guy, you're really doing the same thing. You're talking about a guy who's going to be unproven, you've got to teach some stuff and let him grow and develop. It's all the same deal."

The other option for the Bucs is to wait until after the draft and see what veteran quarterbacks get whacked.

"You're just looking for the most competitive guy, the one that's going to come in and create the most competition whether he's the Day 1 starter or whether he's a Week 6 or Week 16 starter," Morris said.