Lowell Cohn: The striking contrast between Colin Kaepernick, Derek Carr

Two local pro quarterbacks compared:

Quarterback A is calm in the pocket, takes his time and usually finds his receiver.

Quarterback B gets frantic under pressure and throws too soon or too late or too far or too short or too wide.

Quarterback A stands his ground in the pocket and goes through his wide-receiver progressions, one two three, as he’s supposed to.

Quarterback B doesn’t know about progressions. He gets confused and nervous trying to read defenses. Quarterback B is a one-receiver guy, locks onto his target and, if his target is covered, he gives up on the play and runs.

Quarterback A runs when necessary. It is a nice complement to his passing game, but he understands a quarterback is defined by how he throws. The same lesson Steve Young had to learn.

Quarterback B is an excellent runner. He does not understand that a running quarterback has trouble being a winning quarterback.

Quarterback A has a passer rating of 100.9.

Quarterback B has a passer rating of 66.2.

Quarterback A sees the entire field.

Quarterback B does not see the left side of the field outside the numbers and throws interceptions there.

Quarterback A throws with touch, hard when he needs to, soft when he needs to.

Quarterback B throws heat all the time, even when soft is better.

Quarterback A can hit receivers in full stride with the bomb.

Quarterback B can’t.

Quarterback A throws to where a receiver should be. He anticipates the play.

Quarterback B waits and waits for the receiver to be where he’s supposed to be. Quarterback B needs confirmation before he throws and, when he finally throws, it’s often too late.

Quarterback A throws beautiful passes.

Quarterback B sometimes throws grounders and one-hoppers.

Quarterback A has a quick release on his throws.

Quarterback B winds up before throwing.

Quarterback A doesn’t take lots of sacks.

Quarterback B is a sack-taking machine.

Quarterback A wants to be with his team.

Quarterback B just restructured his deal possibly to leave after this season.

Quarterback A gets along great with his teammates.

Quarterback B used to live on an ice floe in the locker room, walked around with his earphones on, didn’t seem to have friends. He was a nice young man when he got drafted, but something seemed to change.

This season, he raised his stature in the locker room and around the league by taking a stand on social issues and speaking out courageously. He seems to have grown. His teammates give him respect as a person. It remains to be seen if they respect him as a player.

Quarterback A is a dream with the media. We have no idea what he’s like in his private life (his real life?). At best, the media knows 15 percent about any given player. But Quarterback A goes out of his way to be professional, cheerful and informative. He understands, as the starting quarterback, he is a spokesman for the team and he embraced that responsibility from Day 1.

Quarterback B used to be a drip with the media. You asked him a 10-word question, he’d give a three-word answer. Being the spokesman for his team was a burden to him. Beneath him. He unfairly shifted his responsibility to the other players, something a quarterback never does.

He has improved this season and has shown the world he actually has a personality. We thought it had been stolen in a schoolyard fight in Turlock. He is learning to be pleasant, learning to act like a team leader. This won’t necessarily help him be a good quarterback.

Quarterback A is approaching elite quarterback status. See the Tampa Bay game. His play and decision making have improved significantly this year and he is on the cusp of elite. But he is not an elite quarterback. Let’s see if he can win a playoff game, or even get the Raiders to the playoffs, before we anoint him.

This may seem unfair, but those are the benchmarks for determining the greatness of a QB. One of the biggest knocks against Andy Dalton is that he has not won a playoff game. Not that the responsibility of winning or losing a playoff game should rest solely on the shoulders of a quarterback, but that is the litmus test we most often apply. And that is life in the NFL.

You want a standard of greatness? Look at Tom Brady since he returned from his suspension. He has thrown 12 touchdown passes with zero picks in four games. He is the most competitive guy and wants to rub it in commissioner Roger Goodell’s face for suspending him in the first place. He is the Joe Montana of this generation.

Quarterback B has passed the playoff test. Got his team to the playoffs twice and won four playoff games. In this regard, he is miles ahead of Quarterback A.

But something inexplicable happened to Quarterback B. He is not the player he once was. Who knows why? His future is in his past.

Quarterback A’s future is in his future. Quarterback B never again will take his team to the playoffs and never again will win a playoff game. His football life became sad.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.