2010 NFL Draft: Are the San Franisco 49ers Targeting Jimmy Clausen?

The San Francisco 49ers" target="_blank">San Francisco 49ers have been looking for a legit starting quarterback since releasing Jeff Garcia after the 2003 season.

Since then, the 49ers have started Tim Rattay, Ken Dorsey, Alex Smith, Shaun Hill, Cody Pickett, Trent Dilfer, J.T. O’Sullivan, and Chris Weinke. Of those names, the only player still on the team’s roster is the 2005 draft’s No. 1 pick, Alex Smith.

Smith is still on the team only because he regained his starting position after almost leading the 49ers to a come-from-behind victory in Week Seven. He finished the season 5-5 as the starter, including back-to-back wins to end the season.

So the question is, can Alex Smith be a successful quarterback and lead the 49ers back to prominence? If the team doesn’t think so and if Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen is available at picks 13 or 17, should the 49ers draft him to be their quarterback of the future?

First let’s take a look at some numbers. Here are the junior-year stats of the two quarterbacks in question, plus a third for comparison:

	TDs-INT	Passing Yards	Completion %	YPA	Sacks	Team Record*
Quarterback A	28-4	3722	68.0	8.76	24	16-18
Quarterback B	32-4	2952	67.5	9.31	18	21-1
Quarterback C	24-8	2566	66.1	8.1	25	17-5

*Overall team record when starting quarterback

So how do they rank purely on the numbers? I’d personally draft Quarterback B first, Quarterback A second, and Quarterback C last.

Now let’s put names to the statistics:

For the rest of this San Francisco 49ers draft article, head over to NFLsoup.com .