| Marvin49 |
02-25-2013 05:36 PM |
Hi All....I've been following this thread since the rumor hit and haven't been able to post till now. Full disclosure...I'm a Niner fan.
No smack talk or anything like that. I just figured I'd give you a little history on Alex.
First off, I'm not going to try and sell you on what he isn't. He is not Peyton Manning/Tom Brady. Obviously. He won't ever be one of those guys. What he is tho is a far, far better QB than anyone has given him credit for. I'm not going to try to sell you on the fact that he's the greatest QB ever. If he were, Kaep would never have seen the field and the Niners wouldn't have looked into Manning.
Positives: He's a TOUGH kid who works his a$$ off. He's exteremely smart (and that a bonus and a neg as I'll explain). He doesn't have a rocket, but he has a stronger arm than people give him credit for. He can definitely get the ball downfield. He will make the right call at the line just about every time getting the team into the right formation. Its like having a coach on the field. He is very accurate on the short to intermediate routes.
Negatives: That intelligence. He sometimes has "paralysis through analysis". Early on his college coach (Urban Meyer) said he was "non-functional" until he learned an offense backwards and forwards. He will wait until he's sure to throw which early on led to some incompletions or to getting the ball to a guy just as he's being hit. He has issues with the long ball down the sideline. He typically overthrows these passes. Its not arm strength...I think it's an extension of not wanting to make a mistake so he consistantly overthrows that pass. Down the middle tho he is just fine...especially to the TEs.
Something happened to Alex tho in 2010 (Pre-Harbaugh). In the infamous "We Want Carr" game vs Philly on National Television...something snapped. It was like he just stopped giving a sh*t what people thought of him. He had a BAD first half...but sometime in the second half there he just started winging it like crazy. He turned off the "afraid to make a mistake" gene or something.
Since that game....Alex Smith Stats....
34 Games (Including Playoffs), 910 Att, 583 Comp, 6710 Yards, 46 Tds, 13 INTs, 97.09 QB Rating.
He's simply been a different guy.
Alot of this can be attributed to Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman. Other than Norv Turner who Alex had for only a year, this was the first time he really had any support from the organization...and he's responded.
Some of you can make the point that its all Harbaugh...and that may very well be true as Harbaugh QBs have ALWAYS succeeded. Josh Johnson At USD. Andrew Luck at Stanford. Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick in SF.
The question tho is whether or not those QBs CONTINUE to succeed when no longer under his mentorship. Josh Johnson hasn't been able to continue that success, but he had a big jump in competition from his college level to the pros. Andrew Luck seems to be making that transition nicely.
Personally I think Alex will be very good with Andy Reid.
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The 49ers have expressed to others that a deal for QB Alex Smith is effectively DONE
(https://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=270361)