Raiders' Jeff Garcia is a backup with a plan

As a new quarterback for the Oakland Raiders, Jeff Garcia will be playing under a black flag now.

And he won't be waving a white one.

So don't expect the 39-year-old Garcia, a scrapper throughout his career, to back off one bit, even though he's second on the depth chart behind JaMarcus Russell, selected No. 1 overall in the 2007 draft.

Nor is Garcia going to gingerly tiptoe around the question of which quarterback he thinks should be starting when the season rolls around.

"Not knocking JaMarcus or anybody else on the team, but I just have a belief in my own abilities; those things have me feeling that I am the best quarterback on the team," Garcia said in a phone interview from his home in San Diego. "That's just how I approach the game. That's how I approach my situation."

That's not to say Garcia is ready to grouse about his role, even though he said the Raiders got him on a "blue-light special," signing him in April to a one-year, no-frills contract. He's happy to be playing within an hour's drive of his family in Gilroy, and hopes to finish his NFL career across the bay from where he began it.

But he doesn't question the notion that he's got something valuable to offer a franchise that hasn't won more than five games in a season since 2002 and a young quarterback who has yet to prove he has the work habits to match his enormous contract.

"I feel like I can help in how I approach the game, how I approach every single day," Garcia said.

"I have a certain work ethic that is a part of me. When I step on the field, there is no 50%. It's 100% all the time. It's sprinting from drill to drill. It's doing everything full speed. It's, when I throw an incomplete pass, showing that I care that I threw an incomplete pass. Not just, 'Oh, shucks, I just didn't throw the ball as well.' I'm very critical of myself. Because I'm critical of myself . . . that's where I feel I help myself."

Garcia definitely has had his ups and downs over the past decade, amassing a 58-58 won-lost record with five teams. After five seasons with the 49ers, he spent one forgettable season each with Cleveland and Detroit, filled in brilliantly for injured Donovan McNabb in Philadelphia, and spent the last two years with Tampa Bay. At his best, he's a galvanizer who can make a good team even better.