Josh Freeman lives; report says he’ll be Colts’ backup QB in 2016

As Week 16 of last NFL season ended, quarterback Josh Freeman was out of a job. He hadn’t been on an active roster all regular season and hadn’t played in an NFL game in more than two calendar years.

Now the Indianapolis Colts are reportedly set on Freeman as their backup to Andrew Luck, and they are ready to move on from 40-year-old Matt Hasselbeck to accommodate that.

NFL Network’s Michael Silver reported that the Colts have decided to not bring back Hasselbeck and want to go forward with Freeman, the first-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2009, as their backup quarterback. Apparently Freeman made a heck of an impression when the Colts needed him in an emergency in Week 17 last season.

The Colts had a ton of injuries at quarterback (including to Hasselbeck), and signed Freeman and Ryan Lindley. Both quarterbacks played in the season finale, but Freeman started and played a little better. Freeman was 15 for 28 for 149 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Not bad for a player who hadn’t played in a regular-season NFL game since Oct. 21, 2013. In that game, starting for the Minnesota Vikings on a Monday night, Freeman was impossibly bad, completing 20 of 53 passes for 190 yards. It looked like that might be his last NFL game, too. That meltdown came after a really ugly and messy divorce from the Buccaneers.

But Freeman has the physical stature, at 6-6, 240 pounds, is just 28 years old and did have a 25-touchdown, six-interception season for Tampa Bay in 2010. Freeman wasn’t good in the 2015 preseason for the Miami Dolphins and was out of work for most of the 2015 season, but the Week 17 cameo turned out to be a life raft for his career. He’s also a cheap option, at just $760,000 for 2016 according to Spotrac.

On the flip side, Hasselbeck faces an uncertain future. The free agent played well at times for the Colts last year but also seemed to suffer a new injury every week as he filled in for Luck. Perhaps a team will be looking for a reliable, one-year backup quarterback, but Hasselbeck’s age will work against him.

Freeman looked like he might never get another NFL job but his story goes to show that opportunity can come along in unexpected ways.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab