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Will Alex Smith Ever Live Up to the Hype?
For the longest time, I defended 49ers quarterback Alex Smith, saying it was too early to make a judgment about his ability to prove he was worth the first overall pick in the 2005 draft. No more. Smith was awful in 2005, throwing just one touchdown and 11 interceptions. Commentators and 49ers fans were immediately calling him a bust. I said at the time that was not fair, and I still believe it to be true. He was a 21-year-old kid who had no offensive weapons. In 2006, Smith was decent. He threw 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions, a huge improvement over the previous season. He looked fantastic in the first three games, but fell off a bit after that. His signature moment was the second half of a December game on the road against Seattle, when he battled heavy winds to throw for two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. He also ran for a score. Some were saying Smith had "arrived." Oops. Smith is now a fourth year quarterback. He has started 29 games, the equivalent of two seasons. He should be progressing, but he's regressing. And I'm done defending him. Granted, he doesn't have a lot of help. The Niners' offensive line looks absolutely helpless at times in pass protection. Smith's receivers don't get open on a consistent basis, and they drop 15% of the balls thrown their way. He's also had four offensive coordinators now in as many years. But Smith isn't helping matters at all. His throws are rarely "on the money", and often sail over the receivers' heads. He seems to have very little awareness of the pass rush, often holding the ball just long enough to get sacked. I once heard Steve Young say he can watch film from a game he played ten years ago, and he can tell if he played well simply by studying his footwork. When you watch Alex Smith, you see his feet are constantly moving and jumping around. That's not usually a good thing, unless you're Peyton Manning. But Manning has football smarts, something Smith seems to lack at times. Now, let's be clear: Smith is a very intelligent man. He earned an economics degree at the University of Utah in just two years. But being book smart and football smart are two very different things. Great quarterbacks are able to make magic on their own, despite their teammates' and coaches' shortcomings. We're just not seeing anything close to that from Smith. I don't think greatness is too much to ask from a guy who was drafted number one and is one of the highest paid players in the history of the NFL. Granted, his salary is the product of the current salary structure, where players get tens of millions of dollars before they even play one snap in the league. But right now, the 49ers are getting very little, if any, return on their investment in Smith. Now, let me say that I really like Smith as a person. He's an upstanding individual from a great family and works hard. And he doesn't need to be great just yet. He's still the youngest starting quarterback in the league. At this stage, Alex Smith needs to show signs of the possibility of greatness. There have really been few signs of that, if any. And I'm not sure we're going to see any of those signs anytime soon. |
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This intel was contributed by sre94
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May, 2012
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