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Some Teams Could Use Garcia

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By IRA KAUFMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 21, 2008

TAMPA - Don't let Jeff Garcia board that plane back to Tampa.

That should be today's mantra for Chicago GM Jerry Angelo, who needs to make Bucs counterpart Bruce Allen an offer he shouldn't refuse.

If Angelo is a savvy executive, he ought to know the Bears would be a dangerous team in 2008 with Garcia under center. Garcia is healthy, and few quarterbacks in league history have proven more adept at avoiding interceptions.

Surely, Angelo can't really believe Chicago has a better chance this season with Kyle Orton or Rex Grossman taking snaps rather than Garcia, whose steady hand led the 2006 Eagles to the postseason when Donovan McNabb was injured.

It shouldn't take an injury to Orton for the Bears to realize Garcia would be a good fit in the Windy City.

In 20 career starts for Chicago, Orton has 12 TD passes and 15 interceptions. Yes, the Bears went 10-5 with Orton as a starter in 2005, but he barely completed half his pass attempts that year and never threw for more than 230 yards.

Let's not waste another moment before dispensing with this "he managed the game well" line that winning coaches like to spew about struggling quarterbacks.

You know what "he managed the game well" really means?

It means you've got a heck of a defense.

The 1982 Dolphins reached the Super Bowl with a scrub named David Woodley at quarterback because Miami's defense was stifling.

And in the biggest game of the year, Woodley went four of 14 for 97 yards before he was benched against the victorious Redskins.

Garcia can help the Bears right now, and he should also be a person of interest for the Vikings, who demoted young Tarvaris Jackson this week in favor of Gus Frerotte.

The Vikings, gazing at a possible 0-3 start, need Garcia even more than the Bears.

Frerotte is 37 - and that's a key number, because it also matches how many wins this journeyman has registered since entering the league in 1994.

His career passer rating of 74.3 isn't close to the 87.2 mark Garcia carried into this season, and a sharp offensive mind like Minnesota coach Brad Childress has to know Frerotte will do just enough to get you beat.

Even at 38, Garcia has a few years left to teach Jackson how it's done on the big stage.

Look around this league and tell me Jeff Garcia can't start somewhere.

Chiefs coach Herm Edwards is going with Tyler Thigpen, for goodness' sake. Kerry Collins is now the man in Tennessee until Vince Young figures out that NFL quarterbacks need to be resilient, not head cases.

Meanwhile, Garcia sits and waits for another chance with another team.

Orton and Frerotte might be decent backups, but they haven't shown nearly enough to think of them as effective leaders.

Six weeks ago, the Packers were determined to bypass Minnesota and Chicago when they were peddling Brett Favre.

Those two NFL destinations should be the first locales interested in the man Favre would have replaced in Tampa.

Blockade that airport, Jerry.

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