A look at the young guns

Joe Theismann offers his take on some of the young quarterbacks around the league and his picks for the top five games this weekend.

Updated: November 10, 2006, 5:42 PM ET
By Joe Theismann | ESPN Insider
We're starting to see a changing of the guard at the quarterback position in the NFL. We ask the question so often about where the next wave of quarterbacks are going to come from and where they are going to come from that I think it's time that we took a look at the current crop of guys who are popping up. This isn't a list with the big names like Alex Smith, Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers because we all know about those guys. This is about the guys who have flown under the radar a bit and have had to face some adversity, but who are playing good football and will be starting somewhere down the line if not with their current teams.

This list has to start with Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback David Garrard. He provides a degree of mobility that they didn't have with Byron Leftwich. Garrard is 6-1 as a starter and brings an entirely different element to the offense with that mobility. But don't think that takes away from his decision making because it doesn't. Garrard has done a great job engineering drives and making smart decisions.

Next up on this list is a guy who many people had left for dead in terms of his career. Joey Harrington is providing the Miami Dolphins with the sort of leadership and smart play that they've been lacking for years. He's revived his career with his recent performance and while his play hasn't resulted in a complete turnaround for the Dolphins, he has gotten this team to play better under him.


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Joe Theismann

Football analyst
Former college and pro football star Joe Theismann has served as an analyst for ESPN's Sunday Night Football since 1988. He also is frequently heard on ESPN Radio, regularly contributes to ESPN.com and has contributed to the NFL Draft.

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