There are three times as many NFL teams currently hunting for backup quarterbacks as there are teams seeking new starters. Somewhere in that extraordinary fact is a message.

We're just having trouble deciphering it.

The conventional perception is that the league is anything but rich at the quarterback position. Haven't we heard for years that there is a dearth of so-called "franchise" quarterbacks? So bashed has the position been the past several seasons that, given the forced mindset that has resulted from all the criticism, one might readily believe that QBs have become as interchangeable as third-string guards.

	Both the Cards and Bears are waiting for a decision from Kordell Stewart.

Yet outside of the Chicago Bears and the Arizona Cardinals, both of whom have the notoriously inconsistent Kordell Stewart atop their free agent wish lists, there are no franchises shopping for a starter.

Despite the attempts of his representatives to lure the Baltimore Ravens into a Stewart Sweepstakes, neither Ozzie Newsome nor Brian Billick has run to the telephone, perhaps debunking the old P.T. Barnum adage about the birth rate for suckers. For now, the Ravens will hold their collective breaths and hope that Chris Redman, who opened the 2002 season as their starter, gets back on the field soon and demonstrates the rehabilitation of his surgically repaired back is progressing as planned.

Bill Parcells might not be enamored of either Chad Hutchinson or Quincy Carter, but since free agent Jake Delhomme signed with Carolina last week, The Tuna has pulled in his nets and at least temporarily isn't chasing an alternative to that tandem of young, scattershot quarterbacks. In one of his first moves in his new job, Cincinnati rookie head coach Marvin Lewis put a quick halt to offseason speculation, anointing Jon Kitna as the starter more than five months before training camp.

So that currently leaves just the Arizona and Chicago vacancies. And with 10 quarterbacks in the free-agency pool who each have at least 25 regular-season starts, it also leaves a lot of nervous and unemployed passers. The number of empty cushions in the game of quarterback musical chairs, now a spring ritual, has been reduced to a couple. Yet the body count in the queue of quarterbacks still looking for homes figures to increase, what with Brian Griese (Denver) scheduled to be jettisoned in June, as well as Ray Lucas (Miami), Chris Weinke (Carolina) and possibly Todd Bouman (Minnesota) earmarked for possible pink slips.

It has become, for sure, a buyer's market. Little wonder the Bears haven't budged from their initial offer to Stewart, a deal reportedly worth less than $3 million annually, with the ability to earn more in incentives. Chicago knows that if Stewart declines, it can always turn to Jeff Blake, or Charlie Batch, or hold open the starter's vacancy until Griese gains his freedom.

In this era of the devalued quarterback, there is always another option to be considered.

"This isn't exactly the golden age, not when it comes to overall quality (at the position), certainly not in terms of the money being paid," said an agent who has two quarterbacks scrambling to find work. "Some teams have just decided they aren't going to pay the price. And there's kind of a feeling that the grass isn't always greener, that maybe sticking with the guy you've got and trying to maintain some continuity is the best way, you know? That makes for a tough market. You could see guys like (Gus) Frerotte or (Tony) Banks, people like that, jumping at any offer."

As perilous as the current landscape appears for those veterans desperate for work, the status-quo paradigm might not be such a bad thing in the big picture. Let's say the Ravens decide that Redman is sufficiently recovered to resume a No. 1 spot and that he earns the starter's job. It would mark the first time in the five-year tenure of Billick that the same quarterback opened the season as the starter in consecutive years.

After all those flattering things the Ravens said about Redman last year -- let's assume they weren't lying about his potential -- it wouldn't be such a bad thing to nurture a degree of stability. "I don't think," said one Ravens official, "we'd be nervous about having (Redman) as the starter, provided his back was OK."

One guy who should be a tad angst-stricken right now is Griese, who is permitted by the Broncos to seek trade options, but who likely is frozen on the Denver roster for three more months because of salary-cap ramifications. The chances are good that by the time Griese is released, all starting jobs will all be filled and most backup spots will be assigned.

Truth be told, the scramble for reliable No. 2 quarterbacks is pretty avid at this stage of free agency, and no one has earned more frequent flier miles than Neil O'Donnell, the man who defines the position.

Reflecting the increasing importance of the position, no fewer than seven teams are either trying to fill their backup spot or upgrade it, and that will create some market and movement. It could well be that many quarterbacks accustomed to starting will soon have to hone their clipboard skills.

It's a message some players will find difficult to decode.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.