Cole Pepper brought up my Tweet during today's radio show, so I thought I'd explain it in detail (heres to you, Cole!). Mostly because I LOVE to talk football and partially because it is difficult to discuss things on the radio show, much less on Tweets.
David Garrard has been a starter for the Jags for four years and each year we mostly have seen him get worse from his first year as a starter.
We all know his first, dramatic year as a starter. Cutting Leftwich so close to the start of the season was a bold move but, in the end, it was the right move. He played great as a game manager backed by the second best rushing attack in the league and quite a good, if old, defense. They only gave up 19 points per game that season (interestingly, the Colts defense was first in points allowed that year), which was 10th in the NFL.
He played in 12 games that season (injured in most, sat out the last. Frick you and your Battle Red games, Texans), had 18 touchdowns, three interceptions, and seven games with a quarterback rating over 100. He finished the regular season with a 9-3 record and led his team to the playoffs. In the end, though, Garrard was more of a game manager that season than a guy who could get the team to where you want to be. A quarterback who is a game manager GENERALLY needs an elite defense behind him to get to the "promised land" of the NFL and the Jags weren't there yet. Sadly, that door closed well before people thought it would.
Interesting Garrard passing stats in the 2007 season:
One game with zero TDs.
One game with three TDs (a high for the year).
Five games with one TD.
Five games with two TDs.
Never a quarterback rating under 82.6.
He was sacked 21 times.
When the defense started to age fast and their rushing attack faultered, they needed their new "guy" to step it up (I'll get to the wide-out situation in a bit) in the next season and he was unable to do that.
The Jags defense gave up almost four more points per game and the rushing attack dropped from second all the way to 18th gaining almost 111 yards per game. Those two things were a LITTLE connected, but Garrard was there and coming off of an historically mistake-free regular season. Year two of being "the guy" has to be better, right?
David ended the season with a 5-11 record. Oops! Well, maybe it wasn't ALL his fault, but he had a big hand in it. He IS the quarterback, after all. But, on the other hand, he is a game manager.
With David needing to step up to make his team better, he wilted under the pressure. He managed to throw FEWER touchdowns and ten more INTs. He completed the season with just an 81.7 quarterback rating and just two more TDs than INTs.
Interesting Garrard passing stats in the 2008 season:
Four games with zero TDs.
Nine games with one TD.
Three games with two (a high for the season) TDs.
Four games with a quarterback rating over 100.
Eight games with a quarterback rating under 82.6.
Lowest quarterback rating of 43.1.
He was sacked 42 times.
Well, THAT was a down year. 2009 needs to be better and SHOULD be better.
David Garrard played in every game in the 2009 season and the Jaguars record improved by two games (7-9). He didn't throw any more TDs (still just 15!), but he did manage to throw just 10 INTs. Game manager, indeed. His quarterback rating wasn't SO hot at 83.5, but it was better.).
How did his rushing attack and defense do, though? This is a team game, after all. His rushing game improved quite a bit gaining 126.8 per game (10th in the NFL) and the defense was in rebuild mode (read: still crap) giving up 23.8 points per game.
Interesting Garrard passing stats in the 2009 season:
EIGHT (8) (ocho) games with zero TDs.
Three games with one TD.
Three games with two TDs.
Two games with three TDs.
Four games with a quarterback rating over 100.
Nine games with a quarterback rating under 82.6.
Lowest quarterback rating of 35.9 (against, the Titans...thanks for that).
He was sacked 42 times...again.
2010, here we go! This is it! David takes the steps toward immortality and sets franchise on the right direction.
This season had it all. A fight for a division crown. Beating the Colts. Career highs for Garrard. Aww, yeah!
David threw for a career high in touchdowns (23) this year thanks in large part to a monster year from Lewis, career high for INTs (15), and career high for completion percentage (64.5). Sadly, he didn't get to play the entire season, but we did get to see a picture of his hand thanks to Twitter and an in-game phone interview in the last game of the season while his team was in Texas getting their brains beat in. So they had that going for them. He also ended the season with a 90.8 quarterback rating.
Sadly, his defense was a miserable mess giving up 26.2 points per game. His rushing attack, however was third in the NFL with 149.7 yards per game.
Interesting Garrard passing stats in the 2009 season:
Four games without throwing a TD.
Two games throwing one TD.
Four games throwing two TDs
Three games throwing three TDs.
One game throwing four TDs.
Five games with a quarterback rating over 100.
Six games with a quarterback rating under 82.6.
Lowest quarterback rating of 33.0 (against, the Titans...thanks for that..AGAIN).
He was sacked 33 times.
This is already longer than I thought it was going to be and I aim to get even deeper into the starting career of David Garrard, but the point I am trying to make with THIS post is that Garrard is a game manager, which is fine if you have a good/great running game and an elite defense. The Jags have the rushing part, but they don't have the defense to get where they want to go, sadly. Not yet.
Will they get to that level before David either gets old or is on another team? I REALLY hope so, as I love the Jags and have been a fan since game one, but I think it is going to take another season or two of Gene's, so far, fantastic off seasons to get things in place. I don't think Garrard will be around then.
As I said in my Tweet, we have been told by people in the media AND in the organization by players and coaches that David is a fighter and he is a competitor. I've even heard he plays best when there is competition for his job. This is a fallacy, as David has NEVER had true competition for his job. They cut the starting QB for him and never made a true attempt to replace him until the 2011 draft.
All of this is why I said in my Tweet that IF David plays like he normally plays, he needs to go (as you didn't understand, I mean go as in leave the team (aka cut/traded) or, at the very least, go as starting quarterback). His "normal" play isn't all that spectacular (his best game as a quarterback was against a team that COMPLETELY quit on their coach). At best, he is a game manager.
Now, there is another thing that bugs me that, I think, needs to change, and that is the head coach. That breakdown is for another time, though.
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