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This is post number 1,500 for Jersey9er.
Make of it what you will from MattM. And by the way, for all stat lovers, it speaks for itself i say. Smith aint doin all that bad as most want him to be and i hope it puts an end to all that Nate Davis mess. At least until the end of the season. Who will be the 49ers' starting quarterback in 2010?
Of course, that's impossible to answer with seven games remaining in the season, but the quarterback on the roster who has the best chance of being the team's "quarterback of the future" is the man who is also the 49ers' quarterback of the present.
Alex Smith will get the chance to prove, once and for all, he is the answer. He has made good strides in some areas in his three starts. He was a 54.4-percent passer entering this season. In his 14 quarters of play, Smith has completed 64.8 percent of his attempts.
He has been better than Shaun Hill in three important areas, including completion percentage (Hill completed 56.1 percent). Smith has also averaged 6.6 yards per pass attempt, compared to Hill's 6.1 yards. And Smith has been sacked once every 12.2 attempts, while Hill was sacked once every 8.6 attempts.
Where Hill was better than Smith is in the turnover department. Hill threw two picks in 155 attempts, while Smith has tossed six interceptions in 122 throws. But the 49ers justify that disparity - in most circumstances - as plays that were, uh out of his hands.
It is clear in speaking with 49ers sources that Hill does not figure into the team's plan as a starter again. The organization likes him as a backup, but not as a starter.
As for Nate Davis, the No. 3, he is nowhere near ready to enter a regular-season game. The club knows nothing more about him now than it did at the end of training camp because he simply does not get any practice time. The 49ers spend their practice time during the season preparing for the upcoming opponent. The starter gets all the first-team reps, while the backup remains sharp mostly with reps for the scout team. I've seen Davis play far more snaps as a scout-team defensive back than I've seen him line up behind center since the regular season started. He is a project who needs a lot of work during a full offseason to see if he can function in something more than an abridged version of the offense.
[ Edited by Jersey9er on Nov 15, 2009 at 19:09:53 ]