The Harrington Family Foundation

Sunday, August 31, 2003

By Tom Kowalski

ALLEN PARK -- Joey Harrington not only studies the game of pro football but he's a keen student of its history, especially when it comes to highly drafted quarterbacks and their spotty track record.

"I pay attention to it. It's a crapshoot," said Harrington, the Detroit Lions quarterback. "Look at last year -- I was the No. 3 pick in the draft and I got killed. I was the last-rated passer . . . I was the worst passer in the world of football."

There's nothing unusual about a quarterback struggling in his rookie season, but the cream begins to rise in the following years. Others, though, rapidly sink to the bottom.

That's why a lot of people will be watching Harrington this year, waiting to see if there's significant progress or a tailing off of production.

"I don't think of it in those terms, where this year is going to define what the rest of my career is going to be," Harrington said. "There are a lot of quarterbacks who take a while and some come on strong. Donovan McNabb was playing terrific in his second year, Michael Vick was playing terrific in his second year (of starting). There are a lot of guys who do a lot of great things and some guys take a few years to develop. There are a lot of variables in this league."

For those who like to make snap decisions, it must be pointed out that Brett Favre threw 24 interceptions in his second year as a starter with the Green Bay Packers. And he turned out OK.

Lions head coach Steve Mariucci, who coached Favre in Green Bay, knows that position as well as anyone in the NFL and he admits there are no guarantees. When he was the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, Mariucci had a first-round draft pick in Jim Druckenmiller who was a complete flop and out of the league in two years. Then Mariucci got a young kid from the Canadian Football League named Jeff Garcia and turned him into a Pro Bowl player.

"The quarterback position is guesswork sometimes," Mariucci said. "You know all the examples of early draft picks who don't make it and late draft picks who do make it and everything in-between. It all has to do with circumstances, being in the right place at the right time, your health, your confidence and your supporting cast. It's all of those things -- add 'em all up and then pray hard."

So far, Mariucci likes what he sees in Harrington.

"He's on course. He's young, healthy and improving and our team is young and improving," he said. "You look into the future, you don't look at what happened last week. You look at where he's headed. Have a little patience."

That's why Mariucci cringes when analysts look at Harrington's mediocre statistics from early preseason games.

"Don't get too hung up on statistics in a preseason practice game," Mariucci said. "They can be misleading. In practice, he's been better, his understanding of the offense is better, his mechanics are better, his strength is improving, his knowledge of defenses is improving. His leadership skills are developing and his confidence level is there. He knows that every day there's something he has to improve upon."

No one is more aware of that than Harrington, who was an underclassman at Oregon when Ducks teammate Akili Smith was the third overall pick by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1999. The first pick, Cleveland's Tim Couch, has lost his starting job to an undrafted quarterback (Kelly Holcomb), while the second pick, Donovan McNabb, has put the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship game the last two years.

"I've noticed," Harrington said. "Being close with Akili and seeing what he's gone through (recently cut by Green Bay) and going through the same thing with the draft. It's been interesting."

And it's not over yet.