Freeny's biggest problem seems to be that he's usually a half step behind where he needs to be, which I think is largely just a function of not enough playing time. He was a DE at Rutgers, and he's changing positions and doing pretty decently. I don't think he's a finished player, by any means, and he still has room to grow and improve.
He also is a lot more athletic than most people realize. He put up better testing numbers than Hightower, who is remarkably fast and explosive for his size. Freeny may surprise this year. I'm glad he's around as a backup. We've had far worse backups at LB (Eric Alexander, Gary Guyton, Pierre Woods, etc).