The Jaguars have been waiting for this broken ankle for the past 3 years. Ever since picking up David Garrard in the 4th round of the ‘02 draft, Jags brass have been telling the world how good this guy really is. 2002 was a lean draft year for QBs, with only David Carr and Joey Harrington being taken as pivots of any note. David Garrard could turn out to be the best of all 3.

At 6′2″, 244, Garrard is pretty close to a Daunte Culpepper in terms of a skill-set. He’s a far superior scrambler to Leftwich, running with the same effectiveness as a younger Donovan McNabb. And while he doesn’t have Byron’s arm-strength (no one does, except for Favre) he throws a very clean ball with plenty of zip.

Garrard is 27, and out of East Carolina. He’s got a career QB rating of 67.9 in mop-up duty. That’s not good, but he’s usually just in to hand the ball off, or throw screens. His 5.2 yard/attempt average is just plain bad, but he’s only tried 156 throws in 3 years. He’s got 44 career rushes for 288 yards (a 6.5 average), and more TDs than INTs (5:3).

He’ll have good fantasy value over the remainder of the season, provided the Jags let him throw the ball. We already know they’re committed to running 20-30 times with Greg Jones and Fred Taylor. So expect 20-25 passing attempts/game with about 175-200 yards and a score/game. He’s going to pick up at least a few rushing TDs with games coming up against Houston, Cleveland, San Francisco, and Tennessee. With that kind of schedule he could easily up his production to 225 yards and 2-3 scores/game.

This is a guy who is going to be some team’s #1 one of these days. The Jags actually went after him this summer, knowing there were teams that wanted to give him a shot to start. He decided to come back to Jacksonville as a backup, which is kind of an odd move. WithLeftwich out for the rest of the season (why would he come back vs. Tennessee with a playoff spot clinched?) you’re going to get a chance to see what Garrard can do against a slate of junior college defenses.