49ers QB Alex Smith says he has ‘more to prove than ever’

For many San Francisco 49ers fans, Candlestick Park holds a special place in their hearts, even after the team moved to Levi's Stadium. The iconic venue served as the Niners' home from 1971 through 2013, though it admittedly lost much of its pristine toward the end of its tenure. Despite its flaws, there was an undeniable allure to the stadium for fans. Watching a football game there was a unique experience that left a lasting impression. Former 49ers quarterback Alex Smith initially struggled to understand the appeal. Here he was, playing in the NFL, surrounded by the best athletes in the world, yet his surroundings resembled the before pictures of a fixer-upper. During Thursday night's Dwight Clark Legacy Series event, Smith reflected on one of his

Former NFL quarterback Alex Smith, who spent his first eight seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, joined Bay Area radio station KNBR on Friday morning and was asked about the team's current signal-caller, Brock Purdy. Smith also spent five seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs. During his last season there, he helped mentor a young quarterback by the name of Patrick Mahomes, who went on to win three Super Bowls. While Mahomes is widely seen as the best quarterback in the NFL, Smith does see at least one similarity between Purdy and the Chiefs' star. "Both these guys are football players," Smith said on the "Murph and Markus" show. "These guys are just tough, do whatever it takes to win. They love the moment. That's what's so rare, certainly about Pat,

It's not a shock to anyone who looks back at the past two NFL seasons to contemplate that the San Francisco 49ers' offense has finally stepped out of the shadow cast by the team's ever-imposing defense. Since their 2019 Super Bowl run, players like Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw, and former 49ers Richard Sherman and Jimmie Ward have garnered most of the attention when talking about the team. That was indeed the case until 2022, when future Hall-of-Fame running back Christian McCaffrey, who came to San Francisco in a mid-season trade with the Carolina Panthers, changed the conversation. The 49ers' offense was suddenly seen not just as a semi-capable complement to a sterling defense, but rather as a unit that could put up some points, and in a dramatic way. With the

New 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen may not have all the answers yet in regards to how his defense will perform in the upcoming season, but it sounds like his approach will remain largely similar to what the team has done in the past under head coach Kyle Shanahan. Sorensen held his first media session as 49ers defensive coordinator before the team's rookie minicamp on Friday and provided a glimpse on how he wants his defense to look once they take the field in September. The plan is to show the NFL that the 49ers haven't changed much in terms of intensity and flying to the ball. "I want them to see we're still the standard of what we've always been -- an attacking defense that plays fast," Sorensen said. "We play violent. We play with speed, and we