Quarterback situation creates questions for 49ers

By Jeff Dickinson  |   Monday, August 25, 2008  |  Comments( 9 )

San Francisco 49ers
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Now that head coach Mike Nolan has made it clear that the San Francisco 49ers' starting quarterback come Week 1 will be J.T. O'Sullivan, the team can now focus on other matters.

Although solved, the quarterback situation may have created more questions for the 49ers than it has delivered answers.

For instance:

· Is O’Sullivan finally ready to be the Man for the 49ers?

O’Sullivan is with his eighth team in his seven-year career, and there's usually a reason why a player bounces around like that. San Francisco fans hope that O’Sullivan, until now, simply hasn’t been given the right chance at the right time.

· Will O’Sullivan be able to breathe easy with Alex Smith behind him?

Nolan told the San Francisco Chronicle that the decision to start O’Sullivan over Smith was a unanimous one made by offensive coordinator Mike Martz, quarterback coach Ted Tollner, general manager Scott McCloughan and Nolan. However, O’Sullivan doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that the 49ers have invested a lot more money in Smith, the No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft. O’Sullivan will make a shade over $600,000 this season, while Smith will cost the 49ers $9.9 million against the salary cap; that’s a whole lot of money for nothing.

· How will the rest of the offensive players react to the quarterback situation?

Common sense would say that NFL players are being paid handsomely to play a game; thus, whom they play with shouldn't matter. Unfortunately, common sense in the NFL is sometimes hard to find. The 49ers drafted Smith in the same year as fellow offensive players Frank Gore, David Baas and Adam Snyder. The Niners picked Vernon Davis and Joe Toledo one year after Smith. For San Francisco’s sake, hopefully everyone will embrace O’Sullivan and the team can focus on doing what it takes to win games.

· What is Smith’s future in San Francisco?

If O’Sullivan excels and leads the 49ers to a successful 2008 season, then maybe it won’t matter what happens to Smith. Nolan, for one, thinks that Smith still has a bright future in the NFL.

Nolan told the Chronicle that Smith is “getting better and better right now. He is going to be a good quarterback in this league; he’s just not there at this point.”

It makes you wonder at which point Smith will be “there.”

He's had more than his share of chances to lead the 49ers since 2005, but the ex-Utah star been ineffective for the most part. The 49ers could try to trade Smith to at least get some kind of value out of his big contract. The problem is that Smith doesn’t exactly have high trade value right now. Are there any NFL teams that would take a chance on Smith? Most definitely. But not for what the 49ers would probably want in return.

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About Jeff Dickinson

I have been writing and editing professionally for 18 years. I spent the first three years of my career as a sportswriter for a daily newspaper in Alabama and got to cover sports and get paid for it! It was great until I got married and then it wasn't too much fun being away from my wife every...
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