There is very little about the NFC West that is easily predictable these days. As was the case last year at this time, I consider it to be the hardest division by far to get a good read on in the NFL.

In the Pro Football Weekly Kickoff Issue print edition that just went to press, I went with the defending NFC West champion Seahawks to repeat as division kingpins, but I made a point of saying that they would “barely” accomplish that feat. I mostly based that assessment on my feeling that the perennially ordinary-at-best Cardinals, in their second year under the direction of head coach Ken Whisenhunt, were legitimate up-and-comers who could very well knock Mike Holmgren’s Seahawks off their pedestal.

I can’t tell you the extent to which I hemmed and hawed over actually opting for Arizona to win the division, but that’s not the point of this column. No, my real goal is to point out one thing in the NFC West that I consider to be very predictable:

Both Matt Leinart, the Cardinals’ vaunted first-round draft pick two years ago, and Alex Smith, the Niners’ vaunted first-round draft pick one year earlier, will be starting games for their teams before the 2008 season is completed.

Perhaps even a lot of games.

In a perfect world, both Leinart and Smith would be entrenched as starters by now, well on their way to becoming top-grade field generals worthy of their lofty draft status.

But that obviously isn’t the case at present.

What we have, instead, with the ’08 regular season fast approaching are two talented but flawed young signalcallers reaching a critical crossroads in their careers.

Although Whisenhunt has steadfastly denied ESPN insider Chris Mortensen’s report last Sunday that Leinart was going to be replaced as the starter under center in Week One by veteran Kurt Warner, every daily team observer in the desert will tell you Mort’s report is probably accurate.

Leinart saw to that with an absolutely dreadful preseason effort against the Raiders in Arizona’s third preseason game. What was more than a little disturbing were Leinart’s mental breakdowns after, by all accounts, having made a conscientious effort this offseason to spend more time absorbing the Cardinals’ playbook and having improved a work effort that was widely questioned after he showed up on the Internet lounging in his hot tub and doing beer bongs with good-looking young coeds.

As for Smith, who had the all-time season from hell in 2007, when his relationship with head coach Mike Nolan steadily deteriorated, he will enter the ’08 regular season on the outside looking in at J.T. O’Sullivan, who has taken full advantage of the opportunity that new offensive coordinator Mike Martz has afforded him.

But something tells me both Leinart and Smith will return to the spotlight at some point this season, for better or worse.

One reason I think this will happen is the offensive lines in front of them.

In the Cardinals’ case, major concerns have cropped up at center, where starter Al Johnson has already been ruled out of Week One following knee surgery and his very capable backup, second-year player Lyle Sendlein, is hardly the picture of health with his own knee problems. Beyond that, Arizona has no proven depth whatsoever at the tackle position, and the right side of OT Levi Brown and OG Deuce Lutui remains an uneven but promising work in progress.

In the Niners’ case, we’re talking about a line that couldn’t have regressed more in both running and passing situations last year. It has looked better this preseason, but there are still major questions regarding second-year pro Joe Staley’s state of readiness at the all-important OLT position, veteran Jonas Jennings’ state of mind at right tackle and an extremely fluid situation at both guard positions, where the best performer so far this offseason has been previous backup Tony Wragge.

Both Warner and O’Sullivan, particularly the increasingly immobile Warner, could be in harm’s way from the get-go. But there are bigger reasons than their O-lines that make me think Leinart and Smith will at some point be back in the starting picture.

Alex Smith and Matt Leinart

In no small part due to the major investment the Cardinals made in him, Leinart will still get a legitimate opportunity before too long to become the team’s undisputed starter. Obviously, the process will be slowed if Warner picks up where he left off last season and gets the Cardinals off to a fast start.

But I’ll be very surprised if Leinart doesn’t eventually get at least one more chance to be the Cardinals’ undisputed starter regardless of the injury factor, although his margin of error has been significantly reduced.

As for Smith, I see a totally different dynamic at work. Put simply, as brilliant as O’Sullivan looked in the third preseason game against the Bears, I just don’t think he’s all that good, although I’m more than willing to have Martz prove me wrong and work the same kind of magic that he ironically did with Warner back in St. Louis in “The Greatest Show on Turf” days.

It’s true that O’Sullivan is a lot more comfortable with Martz’s system than either Smith or Shaun Hill, who, it turns out, was never seriously in the hunt for the Niners’ starting QB job. But it’s also true that O’Sullivan is quite capable of the same kind of clueless effort that Leinart displayed in Oakland. He is a quarterback who can become totally unglued, capable of making ill-advised plays at a moment’s notice.

I just don’t see O’Sullivan being consistently effective at all, which is why I do see Smith at some point returning to the fray as the Niners’ No. 1 guy.