Excuse the wonderment here, but the 49ers find themselves in the exact same uncomfortable position that AZ was a a scant few days ago. And that was the distict possibility that they could lose their nominal starting QB Kevin Kolb, AND lose out on the Peyton Manning sweepstakes. Well, in a few short days, Kolb re-signed with AZ, and Peyton is knocking on our door. For good, bad, or indifferent, the Niners could very well lose Alex Smith AND fall out of the Manning race.

And, yes there are some that wouldn’t be too sad about that. Until you look at the fact that the alternative is someone like Josh Johnson (unproven), Matt Hasselhof (decomposing), or even Matt Flynn (unproven as well). There are others who say whoever the starter is, Jim Harbaugh will wave his majic QB wand and produce another winning starter a la the job he did with Alex last year. Given the fact the Harbaugh set the bar impossibly high after one short year,  Manning would have 2 years tops to produce a Super Bowl win for it to be considered a good move. Even if the status quo holds out, the bar is set to improve on last season. Which again means Super Bowl or bust. Heady stuff, yes, but QB roulette at this point is a very dicey game to be playing when Harbaugh has preached team team team since he arrived.

At this point, losing out on both Smith and Manning would be a fatal mistake. I’m not sold by any means on Manning being the missing piece to take the Niners to the championship (he may not be healthy or STAY healthy to play), and Smith did his part in spades to get the Niners close, but I’m good and goddamn sure that fricking Hasselhof ain’t the guy. Neither is Johnson. Both those moves would be strictly placeholders until Cappy Kaepernick is ready to go. Flynn? Who knows? And in Hasselbeck’s case, Cappy would be starting by week 6. In other words, without either Smith or Manning, the Niners definitely regress. Sure, they’ll likely make the playoffs, but again, that ain’t the goal going forward. The goal is Super Bowl XLVII. Anything short is failure. I don’t think Hasselhof/JJ or even Flynn get the Niners all the way. They screw up this QB search, and this season is likely a back-pedal.