A year ago, the quarterback who was supposed to be working out a long-term deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars is a guy named Byron Leftwich.

And what a difference a year makes.

Leftwich was dumped by coach Jack Del Rio nine days before the regular-season opener, and Leftwich currently is unemployed.  His replacement, David Garrard, was solid.  And is now poised to get paid.

According to Adam Schefter of NFL Network, the Jaguars and Garrard are close to hammering out a new contract.

It remains to be seen how much Garrard gets.  Though he has only one year as a full-time starter under his belt, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo parlayed less than that into a six-year, $67.5 million contract.

But Romo had more leverage — there was no way the Cowboys were going to let him get away, and he was within a couple of months of forcing owner Jerry Jones to slap the franchise tag (likely the exclusive version of it) on him.

Our guess for Garrard?  We’ll say six years, $63 million, with $26 million guaranteed.

But what the hell do we know . . . .