DAVID GARRARD
QB - JACKSONVILLE
In 2007, Garrard’s pre-season performance was so impressive, the team released its starting quarterback and handed the reins over to Garrard, whose salary topped out at $1.1 million. Garrard proved the move a wise one, as he led Jacksonville to the playoffs with an 11-5 record and finished as the league’s third highest-rated passer (102.2), throwing only three interceptions all season.
In 2007, VIZIO, America’s HDTV Company, set out to create an award that recognized pro football players with smaller contracts that emerge to perform above and beyond expectations and bring the highest value to their teams. The result was the VIZIO TOP VALUE PERFORMER, with the inaugural award in 2007 given to Jacksonville’s David Garrard, whose emergence last season earned him not only the award, but a full-time starting QB position and a renewed multi-million dollar contract. Once again, VIZIO will crown this year’s TOP VALUE PERFORMER and today, the 2008 candidates were announced.
Two of professional football’s most highly-respected former General Managers were commissioned to evaluate and select five finalists for the 2008 VIZIO TOP VALUE PERFORMER award. Tom Donahoe the former Pittsburgh General Manager who was instrumental in the team’s three Conference Championships and a World Championship appearance during his tenure through the better part of the ‘90s, while Ron Wolf masterminded Green Bay’s return to dominance on the arm of the untapped talent and back-up quarterback in Atlanta who went on to become one of football’s living legends.
“It never fails that an emerging and often unforeseen ‘value’ player like these delivers the performance that takes the team to another level,” said Wolf. “You just can’t underestimate how valuable that is to a team’s success. After all, it was a very special ‘value’ player we brought to Green Bay that was instrumental in returning that franchise to its glory days.”
The panel evaluated players based on their regular season individual performance and statistics, factoring in the success of their teams, the specific role they played to that success and measured all of this against their base salaries to come up with the five finalists.