Comparing the St. Louis Rams QB situation with the rest of the NFC West

Say what you will about the up and down nature of the St. Louis Rams' season, of all the teams in the NFC West the Rams seem to be much better positioned for the immediate future. Drafting Sam Bradford first overall in this year's draft gave the Rams a franchise building block at the game's most important position. The rest of division should be so lucky. 

With QB questions brewing in Arizona, the San Francisco 49ers made a big announcement today turning to Troy Smith, the former Baltimore QB that was replaced by none other than Marc Bulger as that team's backup. Alex Smith, the 49ers regular starter, is out for 2-3 weeks with a shoulder malady. On that note, let's compare the rest of the division's QBs with the impressive young rookie Sam Braford. First, Bradford's numbers this season.

By no means am I implying that Bradford has been perfect. In fact, he looked more like a rookie last week than he has since week 1, despite not throwing any picks. Comparisons coming after the jump.

The twilight of Matt Hasselbeck's career has had its ups and downs for the Seattle Seahawks in recent years. This year he's having a solid season, but at 35, you have to wonder just how much he has left...especially now that Seattle has again lost LT Russell Okung. His stats for 2010:

I was a little surprised to see that he had 2 rushing TDs. His numbers compare well with Bradford's performance this season, though the Rams are throwing a little more. Bradford's rating, completion percentage and INTs reflect some of his newness to the game. Hasselbeck has a career completion percentage of 60.1 percent and a career QB rate of 82.8. He's a long way from his glory days, and Seattle has to wonder if they have the answer in Charlie Whitehurst. Hasselbeck was sacked 9 times in his last three games, 5 times last week, which makes you wonder what the odds are that he plays a full season.

Now let's go to SF. 

Alex Smith hasn't been terrible this year. But think about some of the talent he has around him in Vernon Davis, Frank Gore and Michael Crabtree. If the Rams had a player like either Davis or Crabtree, the season and Bradford's stats would look much different. As Sando suggests, this might be Smith's last year, his sixth year in the league, in San Fran. 

Arizona might have the worst QB situation of any team in the league. The Derek Anderson experience faded into the Max Hall experiment, back to Anderson and now who knows...probably Hall gets the nod this week.

Anderson does not have an NFL arm, period. Only the Rams inability to stop Steve Breaston in the season opener has padded his stats. 

There's a reason why some QBs get drafted first overall and some are undrafted. Nothing against Hall, but his ceiling is probably as backup QB. 

Looking at the QB situations above, you can see why the Rams are not out of the hunt for the NFC West title, despite some fits and starts.

This is also a good reminder, just like last week's game, that the Rams are young team prone to ups and downs this season. But they are getting better, better than they were and finally look like a franchise headed in the right direction. Sam Bradford is an answer, not a question, and that's the best outlook for a Rams QB since 2007.