The Trade That Worked Out For No One

Adam Markowitz
Friday March 14, 2014

Remember when the Jacksonville Sharks put out this press release about Aaron Garcia being acquired? Everyone in Jacksonville felt like the team was on the way to winning the ArenaBowl once again. Except for one little problem. He never showed up. Sharks fans were clamoring all over the message boards that they should be able to get their players which they dealt to the Orlando Predators, Matt Marcorelle and Bernard Morris back since Garcia never reported to the team. Just one more problem. They never showed up to Orlando either. It was the trade that worked out perfectly… for no one.

Now, the Sharks and the Predators are left to work out what's left of their depleted rosters as they get ready to take each other on this Sunday in the first ever AFL game to be played at CFE Arena on the campus of the University of Central Florida.

The trade literally might have destroyed both of these teams. The Sharks, at least on paper, still look the part of the best team in the Southern Division this year, though it is clear that having either Morris or Garcia would have definitively made them title contenders. With RJ Archer, who is penciled in to start this Sunday over Kyle Rowley, we can't say we're overly optimistic. Morris might not have been the best quarterback in the AFL, but he was at least a serviceable player who was able to guide Jacksonville to the precipice of the ArenaBowl for two straight seasons after Garcia left town the first time.

Orlando's situation is far worse. The Predators didn't have a single quarterback on their roster outside of Garcia when the chips starting falling in free agency and in the "offseason reassignment process." (Read: Dispersal Draft.) Heck, they didn't even have a head coach until December when Rob Keefe was awarded the job. Keefe called up the man that led his old team for parts of last season, Jason Boltus to come and quarterback the Preds.

Color me unimpressed. Boltus threw for 31 TDs against seven picks last year in four starts and some backup work, but in those four games, the Utah Blaze scored 49 points or fewer three times. If the Predators aren't going to get into the 50s more often than not, they're not going to win more than the seven games which they won last season. Though Boltus might be able to guide them to the playoffs this year, the fact of the matter is that Orlando is in no better situation than it was in last year when it got into the playoffs, as it is clearly behind the Philadelphia Soul, not to mention these Sharks, the New Orleans VooDoo, and the Pittsburgh Power.

The backup plan for Boltus? There isn't one. There isn't an Aaron Garcia out there to go get in a trade, and this writer has to imagine that Morris isn't going to just randomly show up at some point over the course of the year either. This really is all that there is in Orlando, and it is a much scarier quarterback situation than the team has had over the course of the last several seasons. At least Rowley had some hope as a starting quarterback going into last season before he jumped the "shark" (pardon the pun). At least in 2010 and 2011, Nick Hill seemed like a viable answer.

The last time the Predators had a quarterback situation this shaky going into a campaign was in 2012 when Collin Drafts and a host of others on a quarterback carousel led them to a 4-14 record, the worst mark in team history. Prior to that? The last truly unsettled quarterback season was in 2001 when Craig Whelihan led the club to an 8-6 mark and a first round exit from the postseason.

Jacksonville has never found itself in this situation at the start of a season either. It was Garcia for two years. It was definitively Morris for two years. Now, Les Moss has some work cut out for him to try to figure out whether Archer or Rowley can actually led his team to a fifth straight Southern Division title.

One of the two of the Sharks or the Predators will be 1-0 after Week 1, but one thing is for sure. Both teams are a heck of a lot worse for wear after making the worst trade of the offseason.