Cal Football: Chase Garbers Says He Was the Best Quarterback in the Pac-12 in 2021
Former Cal quarterback Chase Garbers appears unlikely to be selected in the 2022 NFL draft. He understands that. But Garbers doesn’t care.
“The teams who watched the tape know what I bring and know what kind of player I am,” Garbers said in an interview with Crissy Froyd for thedraftnetwork.com. “At the end of the day, it is what it is and it doesn’t matter how you get to the NFL, it’s how long you stick around – I plan on playing in this league for a while.”
Garbers was not invited to the NFL combine and his name does not appear in most mock drafts.
None of that has caused Garbers to lose confidence in himself.
“Despite our record this past season, if you go look at the tape from a pure quarterback perspective, I truly do believe I was the best quarterback in the Pac-12,” he said.
Here’s what the numbers said:
— Garbers was fourth among Pac-12 quarterbacks in passing yards per game at 230.3 yards per game. First was USCs Kedon Slovis at 239.2.
— Garbers was sixth in touchdown passes with 16. First was Jayden de Laura of Washington State with 23.
— Garbers was eighth in pass efficiency at 135.80. First was UCLA’s Dorian Thomson-Robinson at 153.94.
The fact is, the Pac-12 was not considered a great quarterback league in 2021. No Pac-12 players were among the 15 quarterbacks invited to the NFL combine camp, and most NFL draft evaluators have no quarterbacks from the conference among their top-10 at the position.
SI.com rates Pitt’s Kenny Pickett as the top quarterback in this year’s draft class, with Liberty’s Malik Willis at No. 2. Matt Corral of Ole Miss checks in at No. 3, North Carolina’s Sam Howell is No. 4 and Desmond Ritter of Cincinnati is No. 5. SI’s list includes 15 quarterback prospects, none from the Pac-12.
The Pro Football Network (not to be confused with the Draft Network) has Willis at No. 1 followed by Pickett, Howell, Nevada’s Carson Strong and Corral. Not a Pac-12 name in the top-10.
The top of the list by drafttek.com looks very much the same, before Garbers shows up at No. 15 — first among Pac-12 QBs. At No. 15, Garbers may or may not be taken in the seven-round NFL draft set for April 28-30.
Slovis, once considered an elite prospect, has slipped in the eyes of the NFL folks. Rather than enter the draft, he transferred to Pitt after USC hired Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma.
De Laura transferred from WSU to Arizona in the offseason and Thompson-Robinson opted to return to UCLA for a fourth year as a starter.
Garbers worked out in front of NFL scouts at Cal’s pro day earlier this month and talked with representatives of about a half-dozen franchises afterward.
“The main message between all of them is how smart I am as a quarterback and how the transition for me from college to pro is going to be very easy no matter where I go and how I’m able to pick up and learn a system very quickly,” Garbers told the Draft Network.
He talked about focusing on biomechanics with Jordan Palmer with the QB Summit at Dana Point, California, in recent months and believes his skills have taken a jump. Josh Allen and Sam Darnold are among NFL quarterbacks who credit the QB Summit with improving their game,
Garbers said a priority has been improving his completion percentage — 62.4 percent in college and 64.3 percent in 2021. “I was pretty accurate at Cal,” he said, “but I’m taking that next step to NFL accuracy, I would say, and I was very accurate at my pro day.”
Garbers believes his edge over others is the mental side of the game. He played the past two seasons under former long-time NFL offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave.
“That’s an area I really pride myself on is knowing the X’s and O’s, the whole mental game,” he said. “I think it helps a lot playing in an offense like we did at Cal. It’s what probably, I’d say 30 out of the 32 NFL teams run, it’s very similar. It helps knowing a lot of the terminology, knowing what is asked of a quarterback in that system, all the pre-snap checks and all the mental things you have to go through, how to study like an NFL player.
“I showed that I could execute that offense at a high level, command a huddle and command a team and lead guys around me and make them better.”
NFL scouts have plenty of game tape to watch as Garbers played 35 games at Cal, passing for 6,580 yards with 50 touchdowns and just 24 interceptions. He also rushed for 1,174 yards — a program record for a quarterback — and 11 scores.
Cover photo of Chase Garbers by John Hefti, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
