(03-20-2020, 11:26 AM)leopold332002 Wrote: (03-20-2020, 10:57 AM)Kane Wrote: David Garrard is our Rodney Dangerfield....
No respect I tell ya.
Dude was never an elite QB and in today's NFL he'd barely be a starter. But during his tenure here he fought thru Crohn's, was relatively healthy, a solid leader, and had complete shite to work with at WR for the majority of his time as a starter.
And he gave us one of our few playoff runs and was a couple dropped passes from probably taking us to a SB.
If anything, David Garrard was overrated because people here treated him like he was some above a starter when reality had said otherwise during his tenure as the QB.
For instance, David Garrard got Bench in 2006 for Quinn Gray based on underperform as the starter for Byron Leftwich. His receivers was suspect so was Blake but we don't get him no slack for the same situation. However, David Garrard had the best running back tandem doing the history of this franchise, a very good offensive , good tight end in Marcedes Lewis who was ranked in the top 10 at that time, great defense good head coach and good offensive coordinators. Despite all the things that was at David Garrard disposal he still underachieved for the QB of our franchise. What we need to stop doing is making excuses for him and act like the cover was bear during his tenure as a our quarterback.
cover was bear?
First, Garrard certainly had a habit of throwing INTs at the most inopportune times. He was benched for Quinn Gray? For what like one game? The following season Garrard was named starter and threw only 3 INTs. Good offensive coordinators his whole career? Then why were they replaced after 06?
Blake's receivers were never suspect. Allen Robinson and Hurns bailed Blake out all the time.
Great defense? In Garrards time as starter we couldn't muster a pass rush to save our lives (hence over reaching for the Harvey/Groves debacle.) After JDR was let go, everyone flamed him as a terrible coach, not a good one. Lewis literally had one really good season as a receiving TE, 07, the season Garrard played well and led us to the AFCCG with Reggie Williams and Matt Jones and Earnest Wilford at his disposal.
Yes, he had arguably one of the best RB duos of all time at his disposal.... And we leaned heavy on those guys.
But our vaunted D wasn't what it once was by the time Garrard was named starter, and our receiving weapons were some of the worst of all time.
And as I said, he was never elite... but to say a 4th round draft pick, that eventually unseated Byron Leftwich for the starting role, and led us to an AFCCG that his receivers and the defense let him down in, underachieved is just plain stupid and wrong. If anything he overachieved given the circumstances. Over rated? By rating him the 3rd or 4th best QB of our franchise?
Do you even know what that word means?
If anything, outside of inflated stats, Garrard gave us just as much as Bortles ever did, with less.
Bortles had a better D for the majority of his time, he got more starts, and had better weapons on the outside. Bortles also played during a time when the AFCS was much weaker than it used to be, when Manning led the clots and the tacks always had strong defenses.
Meanwhile Leftwhich could never stay healthy and led us to one playoff berth (which, technically Garrard led us to down the stretch winning 4 of the last 5) and lost the game.
So yeah Garrard doesn't get enough respect around here especially from people who think Bortles or Leftwich were so much better, when they really weren't.
And they were first round "franchise" QBs.
