With only five days remaining until the Dolphins kickoff the 2012 campaign at Reliant Stadium against the Houston Texans, Miami made its decision on which quarterbacks it will take into the regular season.
Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reported that the Dolphins have released veteran quarterback David Garrard.
Garrard’s release certainly wasn’t because of his on field performance during training camp seeing as he was once listed atop the Dolphins depth chart and was the early favourite to win the starting quarterback job. Many believe that with Garrard in the mix for the entire preseason, Ryan Tannehill wouldn’t be the week 1 starter. Miami cut the 34 year old Garrard due to a lack of durabilty and the fact that he wouldn’t be game ready for another several weeks.
Nearing the end of his career, David Garrard has been hampered by injuries. He missed the entire 2011 season with a back injury and suffered a surgery required knee injury in early August while playing with his children at home.
The Dolphins ultimately elected to go with Matt Moore as the backup to the rookie Tannehill. Although Garrard had past experience working in the west coast offence, Moore is much younger and more prepared at this point to be Miami’s backup. With Tannehill, Moore and Pat Devlin as the third string, the Dolphins have a solid trio at the NFL’s most important position.
The release of Garrard also creates cap space and a free roster spot for the Dolphins. Miami brought in several wide recievers over the weekend that could be signed in the near future with the latest being former Patriot Jabar Gaffney. If it’s not a reciever, the other position the Dolphins may address is cornerback where Rod Hood remains an available option.
Although Garrard’s time with the Dolphins was brief he will leave a lasting impact on a key part of the team. Garrard’s veteran presence assisted Tannehill thoughout camp and was in large part the reason Tannehill was able to catch Moore for the starting job.
Following the release David Garrard took to twitter saying “To all the dolphins fans thx for ur support! Best of luck to all my teammates. Thx for making me feel at home!! Phins up!!”
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