| | By John Clayton
ESPN.com
STOCKTON, Calif. -- Filling in for Steve Young a year ago was fun for Jeff Garcia. Expectations were minimal -- Garcia was a 195-pound quarterback from Gilroy, Calif., who made a name for himself in the Canadian Football League.
|  | | The critics in the Bay Area are already howling about Jeff Garcia. |
But now, being the heir to Young's job is a learning experience that isn't going well for Garcia. The pressure is immense. Fans stand on the sidelines of the practice asking each other, "We got to get rid of this Garcia guy?" Already, stories are popping into Bay Area newspapers about a nonexistent quarterback battle among Garcia, veteran Rick Mirer and rookie
Tim Rattay.
"You can already see it," wide receiver Terrell Owens said of stories about Garcia's possible demise. "It's in the papers. That hurts
me. There is a lot of negative press that he's taking right now. I've read from history that he's a strong person. As receivers, we have to help him out."
Perhaps the first thing he learned being Young's replacement
is how to backpedal. A week ago, he answered a question honestly that he didn't feel Young didn't help some of the young 49ers quarterbacks, such as himself. The comments ignited a controversy that forced him to apologize to Young.
More than anything, the controversy gave him a blindside hit that he was now a target, not a surprise success story.
"The comments that came out was not how it was intended,"
Garcia said. "All of a sudden it was a negative situation and something I
didn't want to have happen. All of a sudden I had to deal with it and it
made a difficult week. My job goes beyond the playing field. It goes to how
I handle myself off the field."
He should have known better. In the CFL, he had to follow a
legend in Doug Flutie, one of the most popular players in CFL history. Like last year, it was fun filling in, but being the full-time replacement was tough.
"When Flutie got injured, I was able to start nine games and
lead our team, Calgary, to the playoffs and eventually win the Grey Cup,"
Garcia said. "Doug came back for the playoffs and I was back on the
sidelines. When Doug left for Toronto, the fans in Calgary expected me to do
the same things as him."
Garcia helped direct Calgary to the playoffs and earned Eastern Conference All-Star honors. He was also benched at midseason, making
you wonder if Garcia can keep the starting job for 16 games this season. He
was benched after five starts last year.
"Early on, I was still learning quite a bit," he said. "I
was either not making the right decision or waiting too long to make the
right decision. I was also absorbing a lot of pressure for us not winning."
That pressure might be kind compared to this year.
To be the starting quarterback of the 49ers is to be part star, part politician. The 49ers have two decades of excellence from Joe Montana and Young. The standards are
high, something that may be impossible for Garcia to achieve.
The politics deal with his receivers. Jerry Rice, Terrell
Owens and J.J. Stokes have been used to having the ball distributed to them
by Young, who was a master at trying to keep his receivers happy. Often, Young would console Rice if he threw a touchdown pass to Owens by saying that he'd get the next one. Rice usually got the next one.
Where Garcia has a problem is that the natural tendency of a
young quarterback in the West Coast offense is to throw dump passes to
tight ends or backs. Those are easy completions and allow a quarterback to
gain confidence.
Those plays don't make the receivers happy, though. In two
exhibition games, Garcia hasn't pleased anyone. He hasn't had a touchdown
drive. In one game, he didn't complete a pass to a wide receiver.
"The offense is struggling," Owens said. "We've
had zero points. We had a game plan to get the ball down the field. That
didn't happen. Walking off the field, I felt like we played terrible. We
really sucked. Receivers were running routes too deep. Running backs were
running wrong routes. The quarterback was holding on to the ball too long."
So how long can Garcia hold on to his job under the mounting
pressure.
"Right now, I definitely think I'm confident enough to keep
the job all season," Garcia said. "I know I can be the guy who can step in
and start and lead this team to the playoffs. I've always been able to lead
an offense. I realize I'm also at the elite level now -- things don't come
easy."
But criticism comes easier, and Garcia is getting plenty.
John Clayton is the senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
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