FanHouse RonJaworksi

I think it's fair to say that Jason Campbell, the Redskins' 2005 first-round pick, has yet to live up to expectations. It's not entirely his doing -- Washington is notoriously tough on young quarterbacks, particularly in a Joe Gibbs system (which Campbell found himself for the first three years of his career) -- but that doesn't make fans and media suddenly more forgiving.

Matt Cassel is now the Kansas City Chiefs starting quarterback, thanks in large part to new teammate Bernard Pollard, the man responsible for ending Tom Brady's 2008 season 15 minutes after it began and paving the way for Cassel's emergence.

The talk of Cassel's offseason value began sometime around Thanksgiving, shortly after he had put together back-to-back 400-yard passing performances. He would finish out the season with a quarterback rating of more than 100 in five of the final seven games, and before the Patriots franchised him in early February, the consensus was that Cassel was the best available free-agent quarterback -- by a wide margin.

Staggering news out of NFL Films headquarters: Greg Cosell, Ron Jaworksi's off-camera Xs and Os alter ego, writes in his most recent Sporting News column that Matt Leinart and Alex Smith just aren't very good.

Hardly mind-blowing, I know, but unlike the rest of us, Cosell watches hours of game film before espousing his views. Apparently, if you were looking for a quarterback who would be the exact wrong fit in 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Martz's scheme, Smith would be that guy.

He's not quick enough in his pass drop, he has a long arm action, and his throws are Chad Pennington-like in velocity but Kyle Boller-esque in accuracy. That's a recipe for sideline viewing. Shorter version: there's a reason J.T. O'Sullivan's starting.

Leinart is a different story, although his arm is more popcorn-erific than Smith's.