CHICAGO – When the 49ers' third exhibition game kicks off this evening, there will be an awful lot of money on the visitors' sideline.
The 49ers invested in Shaun Hill and Alex Smith in the offseason, figuring one would be their starting quarterback this season. Now itappears the winner will be a third candidate, J.T. O'Sullivan, with a relatively puny salary.
Coach Mike Nolan insisted this week that dollar signs won't enter into the equation when he, offensive coordinator Mike Martz and general manager Scot McCloughan decide.
"This decision is going to be based on who we feel at this point gives us the best chance to win," Nolan said. "That's what we'll do."
Still, the disparity among quarterbacks' salaries is stark. And if O'Sullivan indeed wins the starting job, it will be an admission that the organization was wildly off target when projecting the most critical position on the field.
O'Sullivan's salary for this season is $645,000, standard for a quarterback who's been in the league for six seasons.
Hill, meanwhile, was rewarded for his late 2007-season heroics with a three-year, multimillion-dollar deal. His salary cap figure for this season is $1.7 million.
Both salaries, however, are dwarfed by Smith's. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 draft signed a six-year, $49.5 million contract, including $24 million in guaranteed money. This season, $9.916 million is counted against the cap.
Furthermore, the team in February picked up an option on Smith's contract that keeps him in San Francisco through the 2010 season. If the 49ers hadn't exercised the so-called buyback option, Smith would have become a free agent after this season.
"It just shows that we believe in him to be our guy," McCloughan said six months ago. "He and Shaun are going to go out there and compete, and the winner of that is going to be a good quarterback for us."
No one from the organization was willing to address the issue because Nolan is still insisting the starting quarterback has yet to be chosen.
"There's been no decision made," he said. "All we're doing is keeping the same process we've been (using)."
O'Sullivan, however, has started all three exhibition games and has led the first-team offense in every practice since Aug. 6. If someone other than O'Sullivan were chosen to start the season, he would have only one exhibition game – the finale on Aug. 29 against San Diego – to get ready.
Still, neither O'Sullivan nor Smith was ready to declare a winner, either.
"I haven't thought about it," O'Sullivan said when asked if he felt he had done enough to win the starting job. "I don't get to make the evaluation. All I can control is how well I play and how hard I play. So I try to do those things as well as I can do them."
Smith, meanwhile, said the only thing he can do is practice and perform as if the starting job is still up for grabs.
"Yeah, they haven't said otherwise, so absolutely," he said. "I'm going out there treating it like that. You have to."
Read Matthew Barrows' 49ers blog at www.sacbee.com/blogs.
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