Jon Gruden is ready to hand the job to Garcia

It looks like the starting quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on opening day might just be Jeff Garcia. According to ESPN's Len Pasquarelli, Jon Gruden has said that Garcia is in the lead and his other qb's have a lot of work to do if they have hopes in overtaking Garcia as the starter.

"There's not a lot of controversy in my eyes right now," Gruden said. "If you want to catch up to Jeff Garcia, our young quarterbacks have a lot of work to do."

Jeff Garcia, 37, is entering his eighth season and will be playing with his fifth different franchise in five years(Cleveland, Detroit, San Francisco, Philadelphia and now Tampa Bay). He generated a lot of heat for him self after leading the Eagles to a 5-1 record in six starts and led them to a division title and a playoff birth after Donovan McNabb tore his ACL. In his six starts, Garcia threw for ten touchdowns and just two interceptions.

"He understands the position," Gruden said of Garcia. "He's moved offenses wherever he has been. And right now, Jeff Garcia has a big lead, to me, on the quarterback position. He brings a lot of juice and enthusiasm to our offensive team."

"I'm not discounting that it will be competitive in camp. . . . But Garcia is clearly the leader in the clubhouse right now, and we are excited about that." Gruden said of the quarterback battle.

Still looking to win over the starting job is last year's opening day starter, Chris Simms and Bruce Gradkowski, who started majority of the season after Simms' appendix bursted against the Carolina Panthers. And then there's always Jake Plummer, or is he really retired.

Side Note: Jeff Garcia played great last year and his new wife, Carmella DeCesare, is smoking...but at the end of the day he still looks like an albino.