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"A young quarterback is trying to be an offensive coordinator, a defensive coordinator and a head coach all at once. And for a young guy coming in, it could be overwhelming."
-- Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan, August 2006

Jay Cutler was not taken with the third overall choice in the 2006 NFL Draft. The Denver Broncos' rookie quarterback did not recently grace the cover of Sports Illustrated nor lead his team to five consecutive victories. And, finally, he was not named as an alternate for the 2007 Pro Bowl game in Hawaii.

All of those things happened to Vince Young, whose rapid ascension in Nashville has been positively breathtaking. Lost in that blaze across the sky that is the Titans' rookie quarterback and, to an extent, Matt Leinart's promising beginnings in the Arizona desert, is Cutler.

He started his third NFL game last Sunday against Leinart's Cardinals and made it stand up for his first-ever victory. Cutler completed 21-of-31 passes for 261 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception. His passer rating was a lofty 101.7, the first triple-digit game among the three first-round choices.

"The thing I like about him, to be honest with you, is that he looks at you like, 'Hey, let me throw the football, would you? You don't have to run all the time. Keep giving me a chance to be the difference in the game,'" Denver head coach Mike Shanahan said after the game. "That's what you like about a quarterback that wants the ability to win the game.

"And you can see that he has it early, and that's a little bit unusual."

The combined won-loss record (11-13) for Young, Leinart and Cutler seems unusually solid for this early in the game. Here's a brief progress report on the other rookie quarterbacks:

Vince Young, Titans: Do you think the Houston Texans were re-thinking their draft decision to pass on Young after he beat them a few weeks ago with a 39-yard run in overtime? This followed a stunning victory over the Indianapolis Colts. Last week Young was ordinary against the Jaguars, but his defense picked him up and the Titans won their fifth straight game. Young was named a Pro Bowl alternate -- don't laugh, a Titans quarterback named Steve McNair was an alternate last year and played in the game as an injury replacement. Young's seven wins tie him with Hall of Famer Dan Marino and Kerry Collins for the fifth-most victories as a rookie starting quarterback. He already has set a Super Bowl era record for most rushing yards by a rookie quarterback (462).

Matt Leinart, Cardinals: The No. 10 pick overall out of USC watched Kurt Warner play the first four games of the season, the last three of them losses. Before last week's loss to Denver, Leinart led the Cardinals to three wins in four games. He completed 21-of-34 passes against Seattle for two touchdowns and one interception and wasn't sacked once.

Bruce Gradkowski, Buccaneers: When Chris Simms was lost for the season (spleen), the sixth-round draft choice from Toledo stepped in and played better than expected, at least early on. He is 3-8 as a starter and his touchdowns and interceptions are even at nine apiece. But despite gaining experience, he struggled as the season went on. The Bucs went 13 quarters without a TD before coach Jon Gruden pulled him in the second quarter of Sunday's OT loss to the Bears. Tim Rattay will start this Sunday, but still, who would have guessed Gradkowski would be the one rookie signal-caller outside of the Big Three to have a major impact?

Tarvaris Jackson, Vikings: The second-round draft choice from Alabama State completed 14 of 23 passes a week ago against the Jets and started Thursday night against Green Bay, his NFL debut. His passer rating in two previous games was a respectable 84.2, prompting head coach Brad Childress to say Jackson -- not Brad Johnson -- gave the Vikings the best chance to win.

The rest of the field: Charlie Whitehurst, the Chargers' third-round draft choice from Clemson scored a touchdown on a 14-yard run; the Chiefs' Brodie Croyle (third round, Alabama) has thrown seven passes -- and two were intercepted; the Jets' Kellen Clemens (second round, Oregon) has thrown one incomplete pass; Ingle Martin of the Packers (fifth round, Furman), the Steelers' Omar Jacobs (fifth round, Bowling Green) and D.J. Shockley of the Falcons (seventh round, Georgia) all have yet to throw their first NFL pass.

Since training camp, Shanahan has been high on Cutler's physical prowess and skills of assimilation.

"The quarterbacks that separate themselves are the ones that can get off balance and, all of a sudden, throw a 25-yard comeback," Shanahan said back in August. "You're rolling to the right and it gets there in a second. You know, not many people can do that, and that's what he's shown -- an unbelievable ability to make some throws that most humans can't make."

Until December, however, Cutler's greatest test was playing against the Broncos' No. 1 defense in practice. But after starter Jake Plummer struggled in losses to San Diego and Kansas City, Shanahan finally went to the former Vanderbilt star.

This was a classic risk-reward scenario. Plummer wasn't playing well, but the Broncos were still 7-4 and very much a viable playoff option. In Tennessee, where the Titans started 0-5, and Arizona (a 1-8 beginning) there was little reason not to start Young and Leinart, respectively.

The Broncos lost their first two games with Cutler under center, but he rallied against the Cardinals. Thus, Cutler is the only one of the big three who finds himself in a legitimate playoff race. Yes, Young's 7-7 Titans are technically alive, but they need a great deal of help to qualify. The Broncos' Christmas Eve game against the Cincinnati Bengals, meanwhile, is a critical one for both 8-6 teams, perhaps the most important game this weekend in terms of playoff implications.

"He was so much more [in tune] this week than in the last couple of weeks," said Broncos' wide receiver Rod Smith. "You can tell by that confidence in how he called the plays, and how he put guys in spots. I think that's a big plus for us, because when he knows what's happening, and the rest of us know what he wants, it makes his job easier."

Rookie quarterbacks, even the best ones, tend to break even with touchdowns and interceptions. Young (10 TDs, 11 INTs) and Leinart (10 TDs, 12 INTs) faithfully have followed this rule of thumb. Cutler, however, has a relatively pristine six TDs to only three INTs. As a result, his passer rating of 90.1 is vastly better than either Leinart's (71.7) or Young's (65.9), which is tied for the league's lowest with Gradkowski.

Cutler's success was foreshadowed in the exhibition season. In his first NFL preseason game, Cutler completed 16-of-22 passes for 192 yards and a touchdown and Denver fans thought they were seeing the reincarnation of John Elway. Cutler played down the performance and, according to coaches and teammates, steadily has improved during the season.

Cutler's game against the Cardinals marked only the second time since 1983 that a rookie quarterback had thrown at least two touchdown passes in each of his first three starts. No less a legend than Marino did it 23 years ago.

"The thing that doesn't show up on the stat sheet," Smith said, "is several times when [Cutler] checked the ball over, there was a couple of times when he was supposed to hand the ball to Brandon [Marshall] on the reverse, and he didn't because he saw the blitz. Things like that are very important to keep your football team on schedule."

Clearly, with the season on the line, Shanahan has faith in his rookie.

"One thing abut the quarterback position, you're always looking for perfection," Shanahan said on Monday. "And it never quite works out that way. I think he's got to feel better about himself, the way he played.

"But he'll come back and be hard on himself, critical, and keep working to get better and better. If he keeps on doing that, he's going to be very special."

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.