Bruce likens O'Sullivan to Warner, Bulger

<p>SANTA CLARA — Veteran receiver Isaac Bruce said Saturday he never paid any attention to the 49ers quarterback competition through the first month of training camp.</p><p>But his seemingly indifferent attitude about the final decision did not prevent him from forming an opinion about J.T. O’Sullivan, the eventual winner in the quarterback sweepstakes over Alex Smith and Shaun Hill.</p><p>Bruce said O’Sullivan compares favorably with such quarterbacks as Kurt Warner and Marc Bulger, with whom he played during his 14 seasons with the St. Louis Rams. Bruce’s best seasons in the league came with Mike Martz in charge of the offense.</p><p>“He does have really good accuracy and fits well into the scheme of things,” Bruce said of O’Sullivan. “He’s got to be doing things really good to be the leader of a Mike Martz offense.”</p><p>Bruce has seen limited playing time in the exhibition season. O’Sullivan hooked up with Bruce on two passes for 23 yards, including a well-executed 18-yard connection, Thursday night against the Chicago Bears.</p><p>O’Sullivan, who turns 29 on Monday, hopes he has finally found a home with the 49ers in Martz’s offense.</p><p>O’Sullivan has lived a nomadic existence in the NFL with nine stops, not including a spring in NFL Europe, during his first season.</p><p>After his stellar career at UC Davis, O’Sullivan’s travels have taken him to Chicago (2002-’04), Green Bay (’04), Chicago (’05), Minnesota (’05-’06), New England (’06), Carolina (’06), Chicago (’07), Detriot (’07) and now the 49ers.</p><p>“At the surface, you have to say flat-out, ‘I don’t agree with your opinion,’” O’Sullivan said. “Really, that’s what it comes down to. Their job is to evaluate talent in this league and make decisions who are the best players for their teams. And I don’t agree with it, for one reason or another. It ends at that.</p><p>“I don’t think it’s a thing of trying to prove people wrong. This is a game, when all is said and done, about competing against yourself and putting everything you can into it. If you do anything besides that, you’re cheating yourself.”</p><p>When O’Sullivan signed a one-year, $645,000 contract with the 49ers on March 4, he was not publicly seen as a potential starter for the team.</p><p>“All you know is what they tell you when you’re coming into the situation,” O’Sullivan said. “What they told me was that it was going to be a competition, and that’s the way I approached it.”</p><p>And now that he’s the starter, O’Sullivan said there’s no reason to be looking over his shoulder. Although Smith has started 30 NFL games and was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 draft, he is clearly not viewed any longer as the team’s quarterback of the future.</p><p>“I’m going to prepare to play as well as I can, and if that’s not good enough, that’s not good enough,” O’Sullivan said. “Obviously, if you don’t play well enough, you don’t deserve to be on the field.”</p><p>Smith, meanwhile, has relinquished his starting job for the first time since taking over five games into his rookie season.</p><p>“It’s not easy, but that’s part of the deal,” Smith said. “Playing football has its ups and downs. It’s a new role for me, so I’m going to take it on and do the best I can with it.</p><p>“J.T.’s the starter, and I’m the (No.) 2. I’m going to continue to get ready and get prepared, knowing that I am one play away. I’m familiar with that, and obviously went through it last year. Things can change fast. I’m going to continue to get better and continue to prepare as if I were playing.”</p><p>When asked if Smith or his agent, Tom Condon, might ask the 49ers to cut him loose, Smith said, “I haven’t even thought about that. I haven’t talked about that. It’s not in my thinking right now. Don’t know if it’ll come to that. Right now I’m just thinking of this new role and what I have to do. And continue to just come to work.”</p><p>Hill opened training camp in competition with Smithfor the starting job, . After a week of practices, O’Sullivan entered the picture when coaches said they wanted Hill to rest his arm. Hill never complained of a “tired arm,”but he clearly fell out of favor the quarterback competitionafter a joint practice with the Raiders on Aug. 4.</p><p>“It was nothing really unexpected, but it’s nice now that our roles are defined and we can move on and help the team within those roles,” Hill said.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Matt Maiocco at 521-5492 or matt.maiocco@pressdemocrat.com</p>