David Garrard: QB of the Future for the Jacksonville Jaguars

David Garrard has been in the shadow of Byron Leftwich since Leftwich was drafted in 2003.

In 2006, Garrard got his chance to shine, and that he did.

While Leftwich was out with an ankle injury Garrard was starting at quarterback—and winning.

Garrard carried the team to the playoffs only to be benched for the second game that Leftwich got to play all year.

Playing on a tender ankle everyone thought that he would get the job done anyway because he did good in practice. Did everyone forget that during practice Leftwich got to wear a red jersey and didn't even get touched. I didn't. When he got to the field he couldn't take getting hit. Never the less, Jack Del Rio kept him in until he finally could not take anymore. By now it was too late. The Patriots had already taken advantage of the weakness. Leftwich was worried more about his ankle than winning the game. If he was that concerned about it he should not have even played or at least should not have started.

Garrard finally got in the game, and he made things happen. He drove down the field and was within scoring range. He threw it to Matt Jones in the end zone for a touchdown to tie the game and he couldn't catch it. All of Garrard's season long hard work went down the drain just because Del Rio thought Leftwich was the better quarterback.

In 2007 Del Rio finally came to his senses. He released Leftwich giving Garrard the starting position. He once again came out winning. He finished the regular season with only 3 interceptions. That is amazing for a quarterback. He also had 2,509 yards passing with 18 touchdowns. He played like a pro bowl quarterback all season. He made history by leading the team to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers twice in the same season at the Steelers home field. Once in the regular season and once in the playoffs.

The Jags finally made it to the second round of the playoffs only to be beat by the undefeated Patriots. His first quarter fumble and fourth quarter interception was costly to the team, but in between those turnovers he played an efficient game against one of the leagues top defenses. His only down fall in the playoffs was that he threw as many interceptions in one game as he did all season. This is expected though seeing as how it was his first postseason start.

The loss to the Patriots may have been expected, but without the turnovers I believe that he could have pulled off a win. So you decide is Garrard the Jaguars future that could maybe lead them to a Super Bowl or just another average NFL quarterback?