Jeff Garcia Is Not Worth The Franchise Tag

I don't know how I missed this bit when I first read it a couple days ago.

Even if no extension is reached and [Jeff] Garcia plays well, he will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. Given the sorry state of quarterbacking in the NFL, the Bucs likely would use a franchise tag and pay him about $9-million for 2009.

My best guess is that my brain is wired so that it ignores things that simply cannot happen in the real universe, similar to how Robot Santa's brain is built with paradox-absorbing crumple zones. And by "similar" I mean I wanted to shoehorn a Futurama reference into this entry.

In all likelihood, the Bucs and Garcia will work out an extension before training camp in July. And even if they don't and Garcia has a good year, Bruce Allen will not franchise him. Not in a million billion jillion years. A 40-year old quarterback is not worth $9 million unless Peyton Manning is lying about his age.

In the absolute worst case scenario, Garcia plays out his contract, has a phenomenal year, hits free agency, and the market determines his price - which will be considerably lower than $9 million. Then the Bucs can decide if he wants to pay that market price because we all know that Garcia will go to whoever writes him the biggest check. To suggest that the Bucs, who haven't used the franchise tag since they slapped it on Chidi Ahanotu in 1999, is asinine. Bruce Allen is not stupid with money. I don't think Rick Stroud said it to stir up controversy this time. It's just an astoundingly ignorant thing to say.