Cleveland Browns veteran QBs have been bridge to nowhere
By Thomas Moore
After bouncing back and forth between Couch and Kelly Holcomb, the Browns went back to the veteran quarterback pool by signing 34-year-old Jeff Garcia to a four-year contract in March of 2004.
Garcia was coming off a successful five-year run with San Francisco, making three Pro Bowls, but had been released by the 49ers over salary issues.
While Garcia was a talented quarterback, he was also one that excelled in a very specific system in San Francisco that maximized his skills. But for reasons known only to then-Browns head coach Butch Davis, Garcia saw little to no time in the preseason as Davis decided that having the new quarterback become acclimated to his offensive teammates was not a priority.
That was all briefly forgotten on opening weekend, however, when Garcia led the Browns to a win home win over Baltimore – still the last opening-day win for the franchise.
Things quickly went downhill from there for Garcia, as the very next week he posted a quarterback rating of 0.0 in a road loss to Dallas. (Browns fans will remember that game as the one where rookie Kellen Winslow suffered a season-ending leg injury.)
Garcia would start 10 games for the Browns, posting a 3-7 record, before separating his shoulder in a November loss to the New York Jets. He would only appear in one more game for the Browns, throwing a single pass (which he completed for five yards) in a December road loss to Buffalo.
The Browns would move on from Garcia as they released him in February of 2005, less than a year after they signed him.
Despite things not working out his first time in Cleveland, Garcia reportedly reached out to the team in 2013 about a tryout. Luckily, the Browns were not interested in going down that road again.
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