St. Louis Rams to Interview Jeff Garcia for Quarterbacks Coach Job
According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, a well-known NFL name could be in line to fill a position on the St. Louis Rams’ coaching staff:
Jeff Garcia will interview for Rams quarterbacks coach job Thursday. Frank Cignetti Jr. to be promoted to OC, as previously reported
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) February 11, 2015
The 44-year-old Garcia spent 12 seasons in the NFL, playing for the San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles (two stints), Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Oakland Raiders, and Houston Texans. The 6-foot-1, 205-pounder was the definition of a grinder, first working his way from the junior college ranks to San Jose State, where he won the starting job and filled it from 1991 to 1993. After going undrafted, he played for the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders from 1994 to 1998 before joining the San Francisco 49ers in 1999 and becoming the successor to Steve Young. He led his teams to the playoffs on four occasions, going with San Francisco in 2001 and 2002, Philadelphia in 2006, and the Bucs in 2007.
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Garcia’s coaching experience is rather limited, though he did serve as the QBs coach for the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes in 2014. Obviously with 17 years of professional playing experience, he had plenty of time to learn the tricks of the trade, but it still may be a bit of a risk for the Rams to have Garcia in charge of the development of a quarterback if they decide to select one in this year’s draft.
With that said, there aren’t many other viable options on the market this late in the process, so as long as Garcia and the team have a positive discussion on Thursday, it’s very likely that he’ll end up getting the job. He has a suitable mentor for the job in Cignetti, the new offensive coordinator, so it’s not as if a young quarterback is going to have no one to turn to if Garcia struggles to adjust to an NFL coaching job.