Jeffrey Jason Garcia (born February 24, 1970) is an American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League. Garcia's professional career began in the CFL before signing with the San Francisco 49ers and starting for them at quarterback for five seasons (1999-2003). After disappointing seasons in Cleveland and Detroit, Garcia resurrected his career in Philadelphia. Garcia is of Irish and Mexican descent.

Garcia is one of only seven quarterbacks in NFL history that have achieved two consecutive (back-to-back) 30-touchdown passing seasons (2000 & 2001) at least one time in their career. The others are Steve Bartkowski, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Dan Fouts, Dan Marino, and Y.A. Tittle.

High School Years

Garcia attended Gilroy High School in Gilroy, California and was a letterman in football and basketball.

Calgary Stampeders

Garcia was a standout quarterback while attending San Jose State. He started his professional career in Calgary with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. He won a place on Calgary's roster as their third string quarterback behind Doug Flutie and Steve Taylor when he threw two fourth quarter touchdowns in his exhibition game appearance in 1994. Soon he was named backup to Doug Flutie. In 1995, Flutie went down midway through the season with an elbow injury and Garcia took over as starter. In his second start filling in for Flutie, Garcia set a team record with 546 passing yards and 6 touchdown passes in the Labour Day game against Edmonton touching off an eventual quarterback controversy among some fans when Flutie later returned. Flutie ended up starting over Garcia in the Grey Cup that year which the Stampeders lost. After Flutie signed as a free-agent with the Toronto Argonauts in 1996, Garcia took over as the Stampeders' starting quarterback. During Garcia's three years as starter, the Stampeders finished with records of 13-5, 10-8, and 12-6 .

In 1997, Garcia won the Jeff Nicklin Memorial Trophy, an award given to the Most Outstanding Player in the CFL Western Division. Garcia led the Stampeders to the Western Final in 1996 and to the Western Semi-Final in 1997. In 1998, he led the team to a Grey Cup victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and was named Grey Cup MVP. Garcia's memorable performance included an 80-yard, game-ending drive to set up the game winning field goal on the last play of the game . Garcia was also named as the 1998 CFL All-Star at quarterback.

San Francisco 49ers

Following the Grey Cup victory, Garcia was signed as a backup to Steve Young with the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League. Over the summer, he had been fighting for a spot on the roster, but early in the 1999 season, Steve Young was sacked by Aeneas Williams and suffered his final professional concussion, knocking him out for the year. Garcia stepped in and shared time with former Stanford quarterback Steve Stenstrom finishing the season.