You forgot a couple
Out these young NFL QBs, who do you think has the best skills and chance to be great? I like really like Cutler and wish Miami had been in a position to draft him. I like Rivers a lot as well.
1. Jay Cutler...Man I wish he was a Dolphin!
2. Matt Leinart
3. Alex Smith
4. Ben Rothlisburger
5. Vince Young
6. Aaron Rogers
7. Philip Rivers
You would have to put Rivers at the top of that list, not the bottom. He's a Pro Bowler already, and has by far the best collection of offensive talent around him. Supporting cast will go a long way in determing who succeeds and who fails.
Ben Roethlisberger was a Super Bowl champ in his sophomore season, and he too has superior organization and players around him, that puts him near the top. The new regime in Pittsburgh says they'll play more four-receiver sets, which will help Roethlisberger open it up.
Jay Cutler is another guy that has to be near the top because of the superior organization, the strong running game, and Denver's willingness to do whatever it takes. Cutler had an 89 rating in the 5 games he started, that's leaps and bounds better then Young, it's even much better then Leinart, who you could argue had better position players then Cutler.
Leinart has the capacity to be great. He certainly has the tools, and Ken Whisenhut should be significantly better then Dennis Green, but it is the Cardinals, and no matter what that organization has done, no matter who they've hired to coach, or who they've drafted, or signed, it's been a vortex of losing. The Cardinals are by far the worst organization the NFL has known in the modern era, no one comes close.
Guys like Young, Smith and Rogers are big question marks. Young looks like Michael Vick without Vick's passing skills to be honest. He made a name for himself scrambling, but that won't last. Defenses have a book on him, and like every other scrambling quarterback, he'll have to contain his running and significantly improve his passing to succeed long-term. At this stage he's doing what he did at Texas, dink, dunk and run. He is so overrated as a player now it's mindboggling.
Smith is making progress, he looks like he's doing all the right things, but coming out of the system he came out of at Utah, you just don't know if he's going to regress. Like Young, he's essentially still learning how to play a pro-style offense. But again, he's got some good pieces around him. They're doing it right in San Fran.
Rogers is a complete unknown. Not many people have faith in this guys ability to get it done. He's almost spoken of as an afterthought. Tedford proteges haven't translated well from the college to the pro ranks, he's groomed eight NFL quarterbacks--Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, A.J. Feely, Billy Volek, David Carr, Trent Dilfer, Kyle Boller and Rodgers makes eight. I wouldn't hold out much hope for Rodgers considering the track record of this bunch.
Two guys you failed to mention are J.P. Losman and Jason Campbell. Losman is starting to look like a real player. He had only five attempts his rookie season, played only half the season two years ago, but is now looking good as a starter. He managed an 85 quarterback rating, if you consider only starting quarterbacks in the NFL, and not backups, Losman actually had the ninth best rating among NFL starters (if you leave Brunell, a placeholder, and Huard, a career backup in the rankings, Losman is still 11th in the league.) When you take into account that Losman had some awful OL play, and only one legit playmaker in the passing game, Lee Evans, his play is very impressive.
Campbell is a guy I don't see being successful. The Redskins are a mess. Joe Gibbs has no idea what he's doing anymore. I remember when Gibbs returned, opposing players ridiculed his offensive schemes as something leftover from the early ninties. Campbell has a better quarterback rating then Vince Young, and he's on par with Leinart, but he doesn't have the same supporting cast, and the organization itself is one of the league's worst. They spend more money then anyone, but that's not a substitute for competence.
