Before anybody loses their lunch over this, or flips out on me, I'm just posting this out of curiosity. I'm not advocating one way or the other on this. So take a deep breath before posting your response.
The Rams announced yesterday that QB Marc Bulger is likely to miss 3-6 weeks with a broken tibia. In reporting on this, Mike Sando commented that this could be the end for Bulger in St. Louis. He's scheduled to make $8.5 million next season and has three years after that worth almost $30 million. As Sando said, it "was going to make it tough for the Rams to justify keeping him unless Bulger played at a high level while the Rams won a few games down the stretch." Over the course of this season, Bulger has had two good to really good games: last week against New Orleans (26/40, 298 yards, 2/1) and a few more weeks before that at Jacksonville (22/34, 213 yards, 1/1). Not great, but certainly some skilled performances.
Is that enough to warrant bringing him back in St. Louis? I don't know their cap space, and I don't know what their plans are with what will be a very high draft pick. But say St. Louis decided to release him to start clearing up cap space. I've said it in the comments somewhere else, and I'll say it again, the current crop of free agent quarterbacks is rather miserable. Your two best QB options are Kyle Orton and Jason Campbell. Some may like one or the other, but clearly this is not a high caliber group.
And so I thought I'd at least put this out there for people to chew on. Say the end of the season arrives, and Alex Smith has not really shown enough to warrant keeping him around. And say you improve the offensive line in the offseason, because whomever is there will need to be kept alive in some fashion. Whether you go look to groom Nate Davis, or you decide to draft a young QB high in the draft, would you bring in Bulger for a Chris Chandler type of role (mentoring Steve McNair)? A guy who can play for a year or two and bring more than Trent Dilfer brought to the table. A guy who can help you develop that young QB.
I'm not saying this has any remote chance of happening. And even if it was on the radar, I'm not saying I'd agree or disagree with such a move at this point. Bulger has struggled the last three or so years, but one can say that has coincided with some miserable Rams teams that have combined for 6 wins during that time. I'm not saying it would work, but is anybody intrigued by such an option? Or is this a pointless exercise?