Garcia to start: Kudos to Gruden

By Os Davis  |   Monday, June 11, 2007  |  Comments( 3 )

Tampa Bay Buccaneers
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Could the short-lived glory be back? Friday, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Jon Gruden made his single best decision since deciding to sit Warren Sapp on third downs.

Jeff Garcia, said Gruden, would be the starting quarterback for the Bucs on Opening Day 2007. Garcia, said Gruden, is "far and away the best quarterback on our team at this point." Garcia, said Gruden, is taking a "big lead" ahead of his would-be competition on the depth chart.

Garcia may just save Gruden's job.

The truth is that Gruden has been the biggest disappointment in the NFL at the position since winning what increasingly looks like riding Tony Dungy's coattails to a fluke Super Bowl win. Since that 2002 season, the Buccaneers have seen one winning season -- 11-5 in 2005 -- but even that team had an inferior offense "led" by Chris Simms.

Quasi-officially as of this weekend, however, everything looks much brighter for 2007. Who's happy about the decision?

The mass media. Former All-Pro 37-year-old is better than ever: What a story.

The league. Hey, another franchise might be competitive and thus marketable!

The Bucs' offensive line. Hey, Garcia can scramble!

Bill Muir. Since coming to Tampa Bay in 2002, you, the QB coach, have had to work with an already archaic Brad Johnson, disappointing Brian Griese, Simms and Bruce Gradkowski. Think you'd be happy to see a guy with playoff experience in this century?

Gruden himself. Remember last season's offensive game plan? Well, it was pretty offensive, consisting mostly of plays featuring an incomplete pass followed by Gruden glaring at the now-permanently shell-shocked Gradkowski. Marking the fifth starting QB in Tampa Bay in five seasons, Gruden naming Garcia the starter this early shows unprecedented confidence. Now coach can go on to glaring at someone else, Carnell Williams perhaps.

The Tampa Bay faithful. Wow, what supporter of the Bucs wouldn't love this decision? At 36, Garcia did little more in the second half of 2006 than take over for a former Super Bowl-caliber QB in his prime, Donovan McNabb, correct the Philadelphia Eagles' graveyard spiral, run up a 95.8 QB rating (featuring 10 TDs against two interceptions) and actually win a playoff game before all was said and done.

Heck, if, like most of us, the NFL didn't consider the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns as legitimate franchises, Garcia would've bagged Comeback Player of the Year last season easy. Garcia's masterful performance is a bit inexplicable; this writer's latest theory is that, because Garcia actually only has eight season notched in the NFL (including the Cleveland and Detroit stints), in football years, he's actually just turning 30 right now.

No matter: The not-too-short-sighted remember a coach working some magic with a frustrated team thanks to an aged, laughed-off old quarterback. That was a guy named Jon Gruden with the Oakland Raiders and the assistance of one Rich Gannon, who started playing out of his mind for Gruden at the age of 34 or so.

What's that? The Buccaneers are going to have Garcia running the shotgun formation this year? Nice.

It's enough to make you want to break out the old Chucky dolls...

RealFootball365.com: Where Jeff Garcia was Comeback Player of the Year in 2006.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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