Leftwich's sudden fall, unemployment hard to figure

It's been one of the fastest and weirdest falls by a quarterback in NFL history. Twelve months ago, Byron Leftwich was the starting quarterback for a Jacksonville Jaguars team many pegged as a 2007 playoff team.

Today he is looking for a job, with nothing in the works. He is an NFL hobo, searching for a place to call home.

Byron Leftwich, still only 28, is waiting for a chance to prove he can play. (US Presswire)

It's so bad that Quinn Gray, the man who was third team behind Leftwich in Jacksonville, is visiting teams, while Leftwich just hopes for a shot.

How can that be? There's a reason Gray was listed third on that Jaguars depth chart. Gray simply isn't as good as Leftwich.

Yet as Gray visited with the Oakland Raiders last week, and has drawn interest from the Green Bay Packers, Leftwich is in South Florida working out, no job in sight.

"I know I'll get on somewhere," Leftwich said. "As long as it's not football season, I'm not going to worry that much. I want to get somewhere before the draft so I can have time to learn a new system."

The Atlanta Falcons released him last month for cap reasons. He was scheduled to make $3.4 million, and the Falcons didn't want to pay him that on a rebuilding team. They even told Leftwich that their so-so line was not suited for his style, which is a pocket passer who doesn't move that well.

But a month after being let go, as teams sign backup quarterbacks to $3 million a year deals, Leftwich is still without a team.

How has this happened? Is somebody killing him around the league? Is his reputation being smeared?

"I'm not sure why he hasn't signed," one personnel director said. "Maybe he's pricing himself too high. Maybe it's the injury history. Maybe it's because he doesn't run that well. It's still hard to believe he isn't signed."

In 2006, before suffering an ankle injury, Leftwich threw 15 touchdowns and five interceptions for the Jaguars, throwing for 2,123 yards in 11 games. Projected over 16 games, he would have finished with 3,088 yards, 22 TDs and seven interceptions.

When David Garrard came in to finish the season, he struggled. So even though coach Jack Del Rio had a personality clash with Leftwich -- they didn't like each other at all -- Del Rio, on the advice of new offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, made Leftwich the starter last February.

Both Koetter and quarterbacks coach Mike Shula were said to be firmly in Leftwich's corner. Two weeks before the Jaguars cut Leftwich, Koetter raved about him after a scrimmage.