Making The Case For Jeff Garcia
Hank Baskett, who is married to his very own reality show, got a whole bunch of reality on Tuesday when the Eagles couldn't trade him for even a fifth-round pick and had to cut him loose to make room for the addition of either Jeff Garcia or Michael Vick to the roster, however you choose to look at it.
Whichever spot Baskett cleared, Shawn Andrews took care of the other one when he was placed on the injured reserve list for the remainder of the season.
The Eagles have had a few strange days in the last few years, but this one might have been the strangest in which no player gave a press conference on his lawn while doing sit-ups.
How often can you add Jeff Garcia and Michael Vick to the active roster on the same day? How often would you want to?
The assumption is that Garcia is a short rental, like one of those carpet cleaners from the supermarket, but maybe not.
If the Eagles just want to get Donovan McNabb back on the field, still have confidence in Kevin Kolb's ability to become a good NFL quarterback and think Vick can run the team if necessary, then Garcia will be looking for work again in a month at the most.
But should McNabb be unavailable, who really gives the Eagles the best chance to win, which is supposed to be the point?
Garcia is 39, yes. But let's look at what he did last season with Tampa Bay. He completed 244 of 376 passes (64.9 percent), for 2,712 yards, an average gain of 7.2 yards. His passer rating of 90.2 was ninth-best in the league, better than Eli Manning, better than Jay Cutler, better than Donovan McNabb.
Garcia can still play and he can manage an offense. He can't throw downfield all that well, but we've yet to see Kevin Kolb do so, either. We're seeing an Eagles' front office attitude that has a short fuse at the moment. Andrews could have been given another chance to get healthy, but they had seen enough. How much rope will Kolb get this Sunday? Here's a guess. Not much. If the Eagles are losing and the offense isn't moving, Kolb's audition might not last more than a half. Reid wouldn't hesitate to go to Garcia. And, guess what, they might be better for it?