David Garrard believed the Jets were giving him a chance to win the starting quarterback job.
But he was certain his bad knee wasn’t going to give him a chance to keep it.
Garrard, who has decided to retire, said this morning on SiriusXM radio he realized during OTAs his knee wasn’t going to allow him to last.
“My knee never got back to the point where I could go out and be fully healthy and compete,” Garrard said, via the Newark Star-Ledger. “I didn’t want to put the team in a tough spot knowing that I wouldn’t be healthy enough to play everyday.”
Of course, anyone who has paid attention to Garrard, who hasn’t thrown a pass in a game since 2010, should have known this was the inevitable outcome. The Dolphins job was on a platter for him last year, and he couldn’t hold up physically.
But with the Jets, he was a legitimate option, which speaks more to quarterbacks on hand than Garrard himself.
“The Jets told us it would be an open QB competition, . . . nobody was ever promised the starting job,” Garrard said.
It’s hard to imagine that if the Jets seriously considered letting Garrard start that Mark Sanchez has much of a shot. Drafting Geno Smith sealed that up for the long-term, but that day may come sooner now.