Quote:
Originally Posted by the_spatula
Here's the source of my recent frustration:
Coming into the season I was pissed about how much we had to give up for Smith. But, I still held out hope that Smith would be a two-year stop gap while we groomed a QBOTF.
However, we are winning a lot of games (which has been great, btw) and the casual fans seem to be guzzling the ESPN kool-aid and are fully on board with Smith as our QB going forward. This is a mistake.
|
Let's take a step back first and look at this from another angle:
1) Smith is only signed through next year at this time. No extension has been provided at this point.
2) We did elect to keep Tyler Bray as a developmental QB this year. By all accounts he's got the tools you want but it will come down to his head. We've got time to assess that.
3) Nothing from Reid's history tells me that they won't be looking for a QB in the draft next year or in future years. To assume that it will be an afterthought for Reid just as it was for the other guys before him would be a mistake at this point.
I may be wrong, but I view this as a couple of guys who came over from another organization, assessed the situation, and decided that the first step towards rebuilding this team was to establish a winning culture immediately. Thus, Alex Smith. Unlike Pioli however, there was no immediate contract extension.
I also view this as a couple of guys who unfortunately were given the top pick in a weak draft. There was no Luck in this draft. I bet you had we taken some guy in the draft and started him and been sitting here at 3-5, there would still be people bitching that we didn't select a championship QB and would need to try again next year where there are a lot more QB's coming out.
Now again I could be wrong, and time will tell, but I bet you that Reid knows that you need a top notch playmaker at QB to win championships, and that his experience in Philly has left him hungry to finally win a ring. So I think he gets that. I think Dorsey also gets that you need a QB to win big, IE Favre and Rodgers.
But I think they also wanted to establish the culture of winning here first, make it a place that people want to play at. They also want to give Smith a chance first to prove whether he can thrive or not in this particular offense with these players.
Now based on the compensation given up, I think Smith will get a contract extension in the offseason, in order to lessen his cap hit. And I think the reason they went out and got him is that Reid felt he would be a great fit for the offense and Dorsey wanted a QB who was good enough that they didn't have to go into future drafts in desperation mode to find one. They probably figure that Smith is good enough and young enough that they can let future QB's fall to them, a la a Rodgers, Kaepernick, Wilson, Dalton, etc, and take them under the "Best Player Available" mantra. And then if Bray or one of those guys is ready to step in, I think you've seen in the past that Reid has been able to trade away McNabb when he felt he was done, and Dorsey was in Green Bay when they forced Favre's hand in order to give the job to Rodgers, who they believed in.
But again, we'll see. If we're still floundering here in 4 years, then the same mistakes are being made over and over...