NFC West is a quarterbacking mess

It was a good day for the 49ers.

 

Their best player will not play in the Pro Bowl, thus he will not subject himself to unnecessary risk in a meaningless game. And the one team from the NFC West that has finished with a winning record the past two seasons lost its best player.

 

Quarterback Kurt Warner announced his retirement today. Without Warner, the Cardinals have a great deal of uncertainty at the most important position on the field. Warner threw 26 touchdown passes and ranked 10th in the NFL with a 93.2 rating.

 

Presumably, Matt Leinart becomes the Cardinals starting quarterback. He started 11 games as a rookie in 2006. He started five games the next season, and had just one start the past two years.

 

Compared to the other teams in the NFC West, the 49ers enter this offseason with stability at quarterback. And they also have the youngest presumptive starting quarterback in the division, as the 49ers’ guy is one year younger than Leinart.

 

Seattle‘s Matt Hasselbeck and St. Louis‘ Marc Bulger were the Nos. 23rd – and 24th – ranked passers in the league. Hasselbeck and Bulger appear to be well past their primes. They will be 34 and 33 years old, respectively, when the season begins. (If either quarterback remains with his current team, that is.)

 

Hasselbeck is scheduled to make $5.75 million in the final year of his contract, while Bulger is on the books for $8.5 million in 2010.

 

Seattle has picks at No. 6 and 14 in the first round. New coach Pete Carroll has to decide whether to draft a quarterback for now–and the future. The Rams have a similar decision with the No. 1 overall pick.

 

Here is a look at the quarterbacks on the other NFC West teams:

 

Cardinals: Matt Leinart, Brian St. Pierre.

Seahawks: Matt Hasselbeck, Seneca Wallace, Mike Teel

Rams: Marc Bulger, Kyle Boller, Keith Null, Mike Reilly

 

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