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Brad Johnson, Jeff Garcia may be Cards' short-term answer
John Gambadoro
Special for azcentral.com
Feb. 7, 2005 09:45 AM
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Denny Green made the Super Bowl rounds in Jacksonville, Fla., this past week and on Sunday he watched the two best teams in football play for the right to hoist the Lombardi trophy. And all along he had an eye toward his future. A future in which Green expects to be on the field coaching his Arizona Cardinals in the final game of the season with the rights to be called world champions on the line.
What Green witnessed Sunday are two of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League. What he sees on his roster right now is a lot of question marks in Josh McCown, Shaun King and John Navarre. And while Green openly says he still believes McCown will be a good quarterback and that you have to take a look at what Drew Brees did this year to understand what can be possible, he knows full well that right now he doesn't have the signal caller to get him to the next level.
McCown is young and he does have talent. But after spending most of the year as the starting quarterback, the Cardinals are no closer now to anointing him their future than a year ago. That's the disappointing part: The Cardinals still don't know what they have in McCown. Maybe some day he will be good. Maybe he is going through the growing pains that most young quarterbacks go through. Maybe some day it will all click for him and he will be considered a quarterback on the rise. Or maybe it won't.
The Cardinals aren't about to give up on McCown. They will tender him a salary of $1.4 million to assure that he comes back next season. But what they will do is create competition at the position. McCown may go into training camp as the starter, but he will be pushed right from the get-go by an experienced quarterback who believes he can wrest the job from him. That quarterback will not be King, who sometime within the next few months will likely be released. (The Cardinals also have the right to Navarre for the next three years and since he was a Green draft pick, he is expected to be with the team this coming season as the No. 3 guy.)
The interesting part about the class of free-agent quarterbacks is, the group is expected to be better and more crowded with the possible release of Drew Bledsoe in Buffalo, Jeff Garcia in Cleveland and Brad Johnson in Tampa Bay.
While the Cardinals will show no interest in Bledsoe should he be available - they believe his best days are behind him - don't be surprised to see the team make a play for Johnson or Garcia.
Green knows and likes Johnson, who was in the coach's first draft class with the Vikings in 1992. Johnson will likely be cut by Tampa Bay as the Buccaneers are set on going with either Chris Simms or Brian Griese. Johnson is a 13-year veteran who has spent time with Minnesota, Washington and, in the past four years, Tampa Bay. He started all 16 games in 2003 but lost his starting job this past year when the Buccaneers decided to go younger.
Just two years ago Johnson threw for two touchdown passes in leading Tampa Bay past Oakland 41-24 in Super Bowl XXXVII. At 36 Johnson could be a short-term fit for the Cardinals and could make them a playoff contender right away.
Garcia could be very intriguing to Arizona because he knows the type of offense the Cardinals run from his days guiding the West Coast offense in San Francisco. Garcia left the 49ers after the 2003 season and signed with the Browns. But his stay could be short. Incoming head coach Romeo Crennel will be changing the offense in Cleveland and word is, he'll be looking for someone other than Garcia to run the show.
Garcia struggled this past season, having the worst statistical year of his career. In 10 starts he threw for 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions and registered a career-low completion percentage (57.1) and quarterback rating (76.7). In 2000 and 2001 Garcia combined to throw for 63 touchdowns with just 22 interceptions. He just turned 35 and, like Johnson, could be a short-term answer that would help Green win quickly.
Unfortunately for Green, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Donovan McNabb, Ben Roethlisberger, Chad Pennington, Daunte Caulpepper, Michael Vick and Brees are all taken and won't be coming available. Those playoff quarterbacks were all original draft picks of the teams they play for. Of the quarterbacks in this year's postseason, only Jake Plummer, Matt Hasselback and Marc Bulger started their careers with teams other than the ones they currently play on. In other words, getting a quarterback through the draft is still the best way to build for the future.
And while Arizona has passed on Byron Leftwich and Roethlisberger in each of the past two seasons, it did draft McCown. But until he proves he is or isn't the guy, Green is going to have a backup plan - one that likely involves Johnson or Garcia.[/font]
John Gambadoro
Special for azcentral.com
Feb. 7, 2005 09:45 AM
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Denny Green made the Super Bowl rounds in Jacksonville, Fla., this past week and on Sunday he watched the two best teams in football play for the right to hoist the Lombardi trophy. And all along he had an eye toward his future. A future in which Green expects to be on the field coaching his Arizona Cardinals in the final game of the season with the rights to be called world champions on the line.
What Green witnessed Sunday are two of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League. What he sees on his roster right now is a lot of question marks in Josh McCown, Shaun King and John Navarre. And while Green openly says he still believes McCown will be a good quarterback and that you have to take a look at what Drew Brees did this year to understand what can be possible, he knows full well that right now he doesn't have the signal caller to get him to the next level.
McCown is young and he does have talent. But after spending most of the year as the starting quarterback, the Cardinals are no closer now to anointing him their future than a year ago. That's the disappointing part: The Cardinals still don't know what they have in McCown. Maybe some day he will be good. Maybe he is going through the growing pains that most young quarterbacks go through. Maybe some day it will all click for him and he will be considered a quarterback on the rise. Or maybe it won't.
The Cardinals aren't about to give up on McCown. They will tender him a salary of $1.4 million to assure that he comes back next season. But what they will do is create competition at the position. McCown may go into training camp as the starter, but he will be pushed right from the get-go by an experienced quarterback who believes he can wrest the job from him. That quarterback will not be King, who sometime within the next few months will likely be released. (The Cardinals also have the right to Navarre for the next three years and since he was a Green draft pick, he is expected to be with the team this coming season as the No. 3 guy.)
The interesting part about the class of free-agent quarterbacks is, the group is expected to be better and more crowded with the possible release of Drew Bledsoe in Buffalo, Jeff Garcia in Cleveland and Brad Johnson in Tampa Bay.
While the Cardinals will show no interest in Bledsoe should he be available - they believe his best days are behind him - don't be surprised to see the team make a play for Johnson or Garcia.
Green knows and likes Johnson, who was in the coach's first draft class with the Vikings in 1992. Johnson will likely be cut by Tampa Bay as the Buccaneers are set on going with either Chris Simms or Brian Griese. Johnson is a 13-year veteran who has spent time with Minnesota, Washington and, in the past four years, Tampa Bay. He started all 16 games in 2003 but lost his starting job this past year when the Buccaneers decided to go younger.
Just two years ago Johnson threw for two touchdown passes in leading Tampa Bay past Oakland 41-24 in Super Bowl XXXVII. At 36 Johnson could be a short-term fit for the Cardinals and could make them a playoff contender right away.
Garcia could be very intriguing to Arizona because he knows the type of offense the Cardinals run from his days guiding the West Coast offense in San Francisco. Garcia left the 49ers after the 2003 season and signed with the Browns. But his stay could be short. Incoming head coach Romeo Crennel will be changing the offense in Cleveland and word is, he'll be looking for someone other than Garcia to run the show.
Garcia struggled this past season, having the worst statistical year of his career. In 10 starts he threw for 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions and registered a career-low completion percentage (57.1) and quarterback rating (76.7). In 2000 and 2001 Garcia combined to throw for 63 touchdowns with just 22 interceptions. He just turned 35 and, like Johnson, could be a short-term answer that would help Green win quickly.
Unfortunately for Green, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Donovan McNabb, Ben Roethlisberger, Chad Pennington, Daunte Caulpepper, Michael Vick and Brees are all taken and won't be coming available. Those playoff quarterbacks were all original draft picks of the teams they play for. Of the quarterbacks in this year's postseason, only Jake Plummer, Matt Hasselback and Marc Bulger started their careers with teams other than the ones they currently play on. In other words, getting a quarterback through the draft is still the best way to build for the future.
And while Arizona has passed on Byron Leftwich and Roethlisberger in each of the past two seasons, it did draft McCown. But until he proves he is or isn't the guy, Green is going to have a backup plan - one that likely involves Johnson or Garcia.[/font]
