The first day of minicamp, Freeman was understandably nervous but improved through the day. The next afternoon, his arm was dead from making so many throws. The final day, he pressed a bit but righted the ship toward the end of practice.

"His first pass wasn't what he thought it should look like," said offensive coordinator Jeff Jagodzinski. "I told him, 'Look, Matt Ryan called us after his first practice in Atlanta and they threw an out-route and he skipped it out there and it took three bounces.' I said, 'You're OK. You've got that out of your system. Now, let's go ahead and just start to play.' "

From there, Freeman stood out in his first minicamp as the Bucs' No. 1 draft pick and anointed franchise quarterback from Kansas State.

Physically, at 6-feet-5, 250-pounds, Freeman towered over every teammate at the Bucs' rookie minicamp

"He's an impressive looking guy now," said coach Raheem Morris. "When you look at him, you can mistake him for everything. He's just an athletic, big, giant human that's walking the planet and I'm glad he's on our team."

Receiver Sammy Stroughter, a seventh-round pick from Oregon State, said Freeman had a real presence on the field and in the huddle. Stroughter made several receptions working as a slot receiver.

"You can tell it all from his eyes," Stroughter said. "You can tell it all from his eyes. He comes in there and he'll look at you. He has that 'it,' that some people have. When you see somebody just going in there looking fierce, it reassures everybody."

Many times Friday, Freeman must have felt like he was back at K-State. During afternoon passing drills, Bucs running backs and receivers -- many of them on tryout contracts -- dropped an alarming number of passes. But according to Jagodzinski, Freeman showed tremendous improvement from the morning walk-through to the afternoon practice.

"It's only been two practices," Jagodzinski said. "I think he was nervous this morning. But he really did a nice job this afternoon picking up what we're trying to do and what we're teaching. What we're trying to do with these guys now, and particularly Josh, is to get him understanding the terminology, how we call things, what we're looking for as far as the reads. I mean, there's a whole process I think when you're developing a quarterback."

Freeman is the first quarterback to be drafted in the first round by the Bucs since Trent Dilfer in 1994. When he returns for offseason workouts later this month, he will be buried further down on the depth chart behind Luke McCown, Byron Leftwich and perhaps even Josh Johnson (Brian Griese appears to be the odd man out).

Jagodzinski, who helped develop Ryan as the head coach at Boston College, said the Bucs need to go slowly with Freeman.

"I think you need to be patient with a quarterback, too. I really do," Jagodzinski said. "Because there's a lot of factors that go into I think developing a quarterback. It takes time. You know, Matt Ryan was an anomaly, being able to come in and do what he did."

Freeman said he was glad just to get back on the football field with a team after months of individual workouts.

"It felt great," Freeman said. "It felt great going out there with an offensive line, taking snaps from center, throwing to receivers, reacting when you have to read. You're not out there with a couple guys running routes against air. You have to make reads and stuff.

"I'm not going to say I was nervous. I just wanted to come out and do well, obviously. I'd say most of the pressure came from myself wanting to come out and perform and be able to spit it out in the huddle and then go make it happen."

And what about that first errant pass?

"It didn't bounce three times," Jagodzinski said. "So we've got that going for us."