I've been pretty content to not have to deal with this mess all year. I think McNair has earned the right to be the starter next season, unless training camp shows otherwise. One bad (well, okay, miserably awful) game shouldn't take that away. At the same time, I hope we're not looking at Boller as a failure to be cast aside. We could still reap some positives from this investment.

That said, any situation that makes Boller a major player next year is bad for us. If he becomes the starter and sucks, then we're once again left without an answer at QB and we'll have spent another season losing. If he becomes the starter and is successful, we're going to have to renegotiate a big contract for him based off of some temporary positive results, and I don't think we have the space for that right now. For Boller to step in and succeed, anything less than the Super Bowl would still be bad news... because we might not be able to keep him at that point without sacrificing a big chunk of our cap room.

The best scenario? McNair should start for another year and get another chance to take us to a championship. Boller should remain the backup. In 2008, we should attempt to re-sign Boller to a very moderate, low-risk deal, then give him another shot at the starting job. We can either release McNair or attempt to get him into a backup's contract, which would be preferable. Then, if Boller is successful for a couple years, we can talk about renegotiating. If he's not, we'll be able to release him without any long-term implications, and start searching for a new "QB of the future".

The last thing we want is Boller to have one good year and be Scott Mitchell.