Jeff Garcia

[Ed Hochuli 3:16]

I'd love him here, if he'd accept a back-up role. I can't believe Oakland cut him. IMO, he's better than JaMarcus Russell right now.

[adam]

I'd love him here, if he'd accept a back-up role. I can't believe Oakland cut him. IMO, he's better than JaMarcus Russell right now.

 

I doubt he wants to be a backup.

[GrizzlyBear]

And to be truthful, I never liked his style of play, I hope he goes somewhere else.

[bowlingtwig]

And to be truthful, I never liked his style of play, I hope he goes somewhere else.

I am sorry I don't want Garcia unless he accepts 3rd string.

 

[lemonej]

I am sorry I don't want Garcia unless he accepts 3rd string.

I agree and there is a reason he has been bouncing around the league recently.I believe he maybe similar to his former teammate TO and polarizes lockerrooms.

[bowlingtwig]

I agree and there is a reason he has been bouncing around the league recently.I believe he maybe similar to his former teammate TO and polarizes lockerrooms.

I agree. He was crying over the offseason about how much he should be starting, instead of going out there and doing his job. The job was up for grabs and not only did he lose, he becomes unemployed as well.

[defiantgiant]

And to be truthful, I never liked his style of play, I hope he goes somewhere else.

 

I agree. Greg Cosell wrote a great piece on Garcia and Leftwich, explaining why their respective play styles make them problematic NFL starters. I'd give Leftwich a little more credit than Cosell does, but he's right on the money about Garcia.

 

From what I've seen, Garcia tends to treat every play like a broken play. He scrambles out of the pocket even when he has good protection, he strings plays out when he had a receiver open, etc. That means his offenses never really get into a rhythm. I'd rather have Brian Griese back than Jeff Garcia; at least Griese was predictably mediocre.

 

Really, though, I think the best bet is to continue developing Hanie. None of the backup guys on the market have a skillset similar to Cutler's - they'd all dictate a substantially different playbook if they had to start. Hanie, meanwhile, has poor-man's-Cutler written all over him: big arm, good mobility, can throw on the run, strong guy who can take a hit. The only things he doesn't have are Cutler's stellar accuracy and ball placement; from what I've seen, Hanie's fairly average in terms of accuracy. That fact notwithstanding, if Cutler were to get hurt, we could expect Hanie to run all the same plays and make all the same throws, just not quite as well. That's exactly what you want out of a backup; you don't want to have to rework your playbook midseason.

 

Look at the Patriots with Cassel last season: Brady's a great passer either under center or in the shotgun, but Cassel's only really effective out of shotgun formations. When Brady went down, the Pats struggled trying to put Cassel into the Brady role, and their offense wasn't as effective. Cassel made a lot of bad reads and took a million coverage sacks; the Pats had to retool a lot of their offense in order to tailor it to Cassel's strengths and cover for his weaknesses. When they went shotgun-heavy midway through the season, he was a lot better, but it was already Week 8 or 9. If Cutler were to go down, I'd rather have a guy who can run the same plays than a guy who'd force a major change in the offense. For now, I think Hanie's the best option at backup QB.

[BearFan2000]

I agree. Greg Cosell wrote a great piece on Garcia and Leftwich, explaining why their respective play styles make them problematic NFL starters. I'd give Leftwich a little more credit than Cosell does, but he's right on the money about Garcia.

 

From what I've seen, Garcia tends to treat every play like a broken play. He scrambles out of the pocket even when he has good protection, he strings plays out when he had a receiver open, etc. That means his offenses never really get into a rhythm. I'd rather have Brian Griese back than Jeff Garcia; at least Griese was predictably mediocre.

 

Really, though, I think the best bet is to continue developing Hanie. None of the backup guys on the market have a skillset similar to Cutler's - they'd all dictate a substantially different playbook if they had to start. Hanie, meanwhile, has poor-man's-Cutler written all over him: big arm, good mobility, can throw on the run, strong guy who can take a hit. The only things he doesn't have are Cutler's stellar accuracy and ball placement; from what I've seen, Hanie's fairly average in terms of accuracy. That fact notwithstanding, if Cutler were to get hurt, we could expect Hanie to run all the same plays and make all the same throws, just not quite as well. That's exactly what you want out of a backup; you don't want to have to rework your playbook midseason.

 

Look at the Patriots with Cassel last season: Brady's a great passer either under center or in the shotgun, but Cassel's only really effective out of shotgun formations. When Brady went down, the Pats struggled trying to put Cassel into the Brady role, and their offense wasn't as effective. Cassel made a lot of bad reads and took a million coverage sacks; the Pats had to retool a lot of their offense in order to tailor it to Cassel's strengths and cover for his weaknesses. When they went shotgun-heavy midway through the season, he was a lot better, but it was already Week 8 or 9. If Cutler were to go down, I'd rather have a guy who can run the same plays than a guy who'd force a major change in the offense. For now, I think Hanie's the best option at backup QB.

 

Agree and I was thinking the same thing watching Hanie in preseason you don't see any drastic difference in the play calling. He's an athletic QB who can make plays with his legs and his arm. He can extend plays and elude the rush to buy time. You don't need to dumb down the playbook for him. Last year he was a contrast to Kyle Orton this year it's great to see the similarities.

 

I like the future implications of having a backup like Hanie. We can now develop a guy naturally behind a guy like Jay. Our starter and his backup have similar skill sets. We are now in a position to draft guys in the same mold of a Jay Cutler and keep developing QBs who can carry on. Someday when Jay is done we very well could have someone waiting in the wings to carry on the torch. Whether that Be Haine or someone else. What a breath of fresh air that we could actually have continuity at a position that has been our Achilles heel for so long.