And if the Cowboys, Patriots, Buccaneers, Jaguars or Seahawks reach Super Bowl XLI, this will be the seventh Super Bowl in the last nine years featuring at least one starting quarterback not taken in the first three rounds of the draft. Five of the last eight Super Bowls have been won by quarterbacks undrafted or taken in the sixth round or later.

"When you're a first-round pick, a lot of times you're getting thrown into a tough situation very early in your career, and you don't get that chance to mature into an NFL quarterback," said Warner, who graduated from Northern Iowa and bounced around the Arena League and various training camps before becoming the 1999 NFL and Super Bowl MVP.

"A lot of times undrafted guys or late-round guys have a chance to get oriented to the professional game behind the scenes and learn and grow and mature physically and as a person, and when they finally do get the chance, they're ready for it.

"I know coming out of college, there was no way I could have had the success I had six or seven years later. But I had a chance to play a lot of football in the Arena League and to just watch other guys and learn about the game, and when I did get my shot, I think I was a lot better prepared.

"You look at guys like Romo and Jeff Garcia and Matt -- they were around the league several years before they got their opportunity. A guy like [former teammate] Eli Manning never had the chance to sit back and take it all in. He had to learn it on the run, and quarterback is a tough position to do that. A lot of those first-round guys aren't allowed a grace period, and they end up getting let go because they weren't the savior they were supposed to be."

Coaches and scouts study hours of film, test college seniors in every imaginable way, conduct lengthy interviews, and still have no clue what they're getting.

And that's why Tee Martin can be drafted 36 picks ahead of Brady, why Rick Mirer can be drafted 220 picks ahead of Trent Green, why Kliff Kingsbury, Gibran Hamdan, Brian St. Pierre, Dave Ragone and nine other quarterbacks can be selected in 2003 when none of the 32 NFL teams deemed Romo worthy of even a seventh-round pick.

"There are so many idiosyncrasies and little details to playing quarterback that don't show up at something like the Combine," Warner said. "Especially with young men. Maybe they weren't that great in college, but they're still growing physically. Or maybe they had a great college career but maxed out."

Hasselbeck spent his first three NFL seasons with the Packers as a rarely used, anonymous sixth-round pick drafted out of Boston College by Mike Holmgren. He didn't start a game until his fourth NFL season, after Holmgren brought him to the Seahawks. He didn't reach the playoffs until his sixth year. But he took Seattle to the Super Bowl in 2005 and is back in the playoffs for a third straight year.

"I wasn't very good coming out of college," Hasselbeck said. "I wasn't ready to play. I sat on the bench and had a chance to watch Brett Favre and really learn about the NFL. For certain guys, being drafted late or undrafted, that lights a fire in you and puts a chip on your shoulder. You're in survivor mode."

And that survivor mode, that fire that burns from having to fight for everything, serves these guys well. First-round picks get massive signing bonuses, are guaranteed a roster spot, and can grow comfortable and content very quickly.

With these guys, that doesn't happen.

"You pay a young man a ton of money and there is pressure to get him on the field and have him play," Holmgren said. "That's the nature of our business. If you can take a guy a little later, now you have a couple years and you have a chance to have a really good player.

"Now, a lot of times, the coach gets fired [first]. But if you have the luxury of bringing him along slowly, you have the same coach, you have a good system, a pretty good defense, then you have a chance to see him develop. There's some patience involved. You have to have it."

By The Numbers

• Saints RB Pierre Thomas, who had 105 rushing yards and 121 receiving yards Sunday against the Bears, is the first undrafted rookie in NFL history with 100 yards both rushing and receiving in the same game.

He's the first rookie with 100 of each since Joe Delaney of the Chiefs had 106 rushing and 104 receiving against the Raiders on Oct. 11, 1981. The only other undrafted player with a 100-100 game at any point in his career was Priest Holmes of the Chiefs, who did it against the Raiders in 2001, his fifth NFL season, and a year later against the Seahawks.

Herschel Walker had a 100-100 game for the Cowboys in 1986 against the Eagles in his first NFL season, but he wasn't considered a rookie because he had played in the USFL.

• The Cowboys netted one rushing yard on 16 carries against the Redskins on Sunday. That's the fewest rushing yards in NFL history on 16 or more carries. The previous lowest rushing total on 16 or more carries was two yards on 18 carries by the Patriots against the Saints on Nov. 30, 1986.

• Lions QB Jon Kitna's 80.9 passer rating this year is the second lowest in the last eight years by a quarterback who passed for 4,000 yards or more. The only lower such passer rating was Kitna's 79.9 mark last year.

• Eagles WR Kevin Curtis on Sunday recovered a fumble for a touchdown against the Bills, becoming the first player in NFL history to recover his own team's fumble for a touchdown in consecutive games. Only two other players have two such recoveries in the same season -- Ahmad Rashad of the Bills in 1974 and Del Rodgers of the Packers in 1982.

• Cards WR Larry Fitzgerald had 171 yards on 11 catches a week after teammate Anquan Boldin had 162 yards on 13 catches. They're the first teammates to surpass 10 receptions and 150 yards in consecutive weeks since Brett Perriman of the Lions had 12 receptions for 153 yards against the Vikings and Herman Moore was 14-for-183 against the Bears in 1996.