David Garrard Plans to Retire from NFL

According to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, veteran quarterback David Garrard has told Jets players that he won't be with the team going forward:

While nothing has been officially announced at this juncture, a text sent from Garrard to Adam Schein of Sirius XM makes it sound like the signal-caller is retiring:

It seems like Garrard is waiting to make an official announcement until he can re-sign with the Jacksonville Jaguars, likely for a one-day contract, per Tania Ganguli of the Houston Chronicle:

Garrard has been battling injuries over the past few seasons, but the timing of this impending announcement comes as a shock. After signing with New York this offseason, Garrard was expected to be a major player in the team's quarterback battle that also includes Mark Sanchez, rookie Geno Smith, Greg McElroy and Matt Simms.

Teams can only carry three signal-callers on their active roster, so a departure from at least one of the four main competitors—Simms is more tertiary—was expected sometime between now and the beginning of the season.

Garrard was the Jets' most experienced passer and has a Pro Bowl appearance under his belt, but was considered a relative long shot to win the starting job. As noted by Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com, Garrard's departure may help clear up the Jets' quarterback situation:

Jets implications aside, this news is just more of the same for Garrard. The 35-year-old signal quarterback's career has been placed on hold over the past couple of seasons due to injuries—this time it's just for good.

Garrard spent nine seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2002 to 2010, emerging as the team's franchise guy under center for the last five. He threw for a total of 16,003 yards and 89 touchdowns against just 54 interceptions en route to compiling a 85.8 career quarterback rating with the team.

A dual-threat quarterback out of the backfield, Garrard also accounted for 1,746 yards and 17 touchdowns as a rusher. He was released by the Jaguars in 2011 after the team drafted Blaine Gabbert as its quarterback of the future.

Though he had received interest from teams after being let go by the Jaguars, Garrard's knee injuries continually kept him off the field. He missed each of the past two seasons due to injuries, including last year when he was expected to compete for a starting job with the Miami Dolphins.

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