The game of quarterback musical chairs is almost at an end. The Dolphins got the last chair and it has David Garrard’s name on it.
Miami signed the former Jacksonville quarterback, who sat out the 2011 season with a back injury after the Jaguars cut him shortly before the season began, to a one-year deal. Garrard had a few good seasons but at age 34 he isn’t going to be anyone’s franchise quarterback.
The Redskins got one of the three gems of the available quarterbacks. Not quite two weeks ago, before the music really started playing, they locked in either Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin by picking up the second pick in the draft. The Colts, who earned the first pick in the draft by collapsing to a 2-14 record in Peyton Manning’s absence, get the other one, likely luck.
The other big QB catch was, of course, Manning and when he landed in Denver a team that was not thought to be in the market for a quarterback ended up with the biggest free agent prize ever.
Matt Flynn ended up in Seattle just before Manning signed. That left the Dolphins, who wanted Manning, Griffin, and Flynn and anyone else who might sell a few extra season tickets, ended up with Garrard, who could cause cancellation. It’s still possible that the Dolphins could land Alex Smith but he is likely to return to the 49ers after they lost out on Manning. Even Smith, who had an OK season in 2011 after five very spotty years with San Francisco, is not likely to get South Floridians to pack Whatever the Name of it is Today Stadium.
The Redskins paid a heavy price for RG3, no doubt about it. But the cost of ending up with someone like Garrard would have been disaster.
In other words, it’s worth a premium of a first-round pick and maybe even a second to not be the Miami Dolphins today. They are left hoping to figure out a way to get Matt Barkley a year from now.
So if the Dolphins lost the game of musical chairs, what does that mean for the Browns?
Posted by: StudleyDudley13 | Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 05:37 PM