Mark J. Terrill / AP

The Arizona Cardinals' decision pitting Matt Leinart, left, against Kurt Warner isn't the only quarterback dilemma in the NFL this offseason.

The flip side of those players who've shown time and again they can be better than serviceable are the ones who only hint that they can be very good.

Matt Leinart isn't even 26 yet, but it already seems he's hit a crossroads with the Cardinals. If Arizona re-signs Warner, that leaves Leinart with three years remaining on his deal, consigned to another season of watching.

Meanwhile, the 49ers will want to work out a new deal with the No. 1 overall pick from 2005, Alex Smith, if they want him to stay. Smith carries a $12.2 million cap charge and – given that he's not even the favorite to beat out Shaun Hill for the No. 1 spot – what good does it do him to stay where his welcome has worn out?

And what of Matt Cassel? The Patriots franchised him after a sparkling 2008 season in relief of Tom Brady. Is Cassel as polished and efficient as he seemed? Can he replicate what he did in New England with a group of players that broke every important record in 2007 with lesser talent around him? Or does he go the route of Cleveland's Derek Anderson. An out-of-nowhere Pro Bowler in 2007 and a flop in 2008?

"If you're coming off of 4-12 or 5-11, you're looking at the draft, and you don't think any of those guys are slam dunks, you might make a run at Alex Smith," Sundquist said. "I would. Here's the thing I say: 'Are we all absolute idiots? Did we not look at Alex Smith and see that he was a pretty good quarterback and that a lot of people felt that way? Look at the opinions from that draft. He was taken as high as he was because people all over had pretty high regard for him."

The trap teams need to avoid falling into, Sundquist said, is trying to force a square QB peg in a round QB hole. Rookies and untested quarterbacks have historically been bad fits for rebuilding teams (although 2008 was an exception with Atlanta's Matt Ryan and Baltimore's Joe Flacco).

"You put a young player in a situation without a supporting cast or a receivers corps or a running game and you ask him to be the guy, I just don't think it's fair," he said. "Unless you're willing to ride it out and plan to develop that guy with the team, don't do it. Teams need patience with quarterbacks taken highly in the draft."

That, of course, branches into another quarterbacking conversation on the relative merits of the young guy. What exactly made Ryan and Flacco good while Smith and JaMarcus Russell – No. 1 picks in 2005 and 2007 – haven't been?

What's the care and feeding of the young quarterback? Or should you just get a housebroken one like Garcia or Kerry Collins.

Talk amongst yourselves.

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