a Thought on Alex Smith and the Bust title

OK 1st I want to say these are my reason for saying Alex Smith will succeed in the NFL rather than be a bust as MOST Niner fans have labeled him...
ok going by record alone you cant label a player in a team sport a bust...I mean for those of you that are Giants fans would you call M Cain a Lousy pitcher? Look at his W-L record 54-61 in his career...For those that are Warrior fans is Steven Curry a Lousy basketball player? His team record shows he is...for those that cant see where Im getting at here Im not saying that Alex is as good as Matt Cain or Steven Curry but what I am saying is it's more then judging a guy by his record. Now lets look at this for a moment.

Alex Smith had a MISERABLE rookie season..true but does that make him a bust? As Ive said MANY MANY times...that team was so bad they should have been the 1st team to go 0-16..somehow the team won what 4 games that year? OK now lets see with the team the Niners had in 05 Seriously would ANY QB have helped them? No even Joe Montana would have looked bad on that team...You cant look good if you're running for you life on every passing down...Steve Young may have looked decent? and that's only because of his scrambling abilities. But for the most part you cant really blame Alex Smith his rookie year cause the whole team was a JOKE. In any case I wont say a QB that's starting for a lousy team a BUST... the WHOLE team was a Bust...Look at Troy Aikman as a rookie did he fair well? He didn't have a bad career though...And I couldn't stand the guy til I met him and got to actually sit down and talk to him...I gained alot of respect for T Aikman.
Year 2 Alex Smith went from 1 TD and 11 Ints to 16 TDs and 16 Int. a HUGE Improvement over the year before and his QB rating almost doubled. Year 3 Alex Smith loses N Turner as OC...who I think Alex Smith would have taken off under had he stayed on as OC. In any case Alex Smith made a Big jump in 06 from his disastrous rookie season. Now getting on with season 3 in 07...Yes he had lousy numbers...under 50 pct pass completions but lets take a look at the season. He didn't start off bad not really anything to write home about but definitely not LOUSY. The guy Separates his shoulder and tries to come back early to help the team while his HC is Bashing him...A QB with a separated shoulder is heading for disaster if he tries playing...in my opinion the guy should have not tried coming back especially with basically a lost season anyway. I don't know of many QBs that would be able to play with a separated shoulder and look good. So is he really a Bust? He's had a disastrous season (Not all his fault) and a pretty good season. year 3 he played 3 games before getting hurt where he was OK and then he played with a torn up shoulder after that...I will give him the benefit of the doubt there. Season 4 He pays for his coming back early the year before has surgery on his shoulder and is shelved w/o even taking a snap...cant say he's a bust when he cant even get on the field due to injury. that brings us to last year prorated his season would have looked like this 3418 yds, 26 TDs a QB rating of 81.5 Hmmmm look at B Favre...and as much as I HATE him you cant say he's a lousy QB but look at his QB rating he's got several (6) years with a QB rating below 81.5

So it looks to me like you give him the weapons he needs and Alex Smith will do just fine. Seriously how good of a QB would Joe Montana be if his best receiver was Brandon Llyod? The reason Montana was so good is he had a great sounding cast with him...For those that don't think Jerry Rice, John Taylor, Roger Craig, Russ Francis, and for the most part a solid OLine, etc help Joe Montana be the Hall of Fame QB he was don,t know much about TEAM sports.

Now Alex Smith has Micheal Crabtree, Vernon Davis, F Gore and B Westbrook... If he has a bad year this year then you all might have a point...still even with all those weapons if his OLine cant protect him you can have 2 J Rices and 2 R Craigs and that might not help but from what I saw this past week the OLine looked ok...

And please if you want to show the other side of Alex Smith please don't just say Sashroxx you're an idiot you don't know what you're talking about show me WHY your point is right and mine is flawed

I don't think most on here would call him a bust. I think most are disappointed with his performance to date. I mean, we didn't draft this guy 1st overall to be average...

Depends on your definition of BUST. I think many fans think BUST = a player who for whatever reason has not been successful for his team over a period of determined years.

In that respect, I can see why some fans label him so. Basically, the term BUST has been grossly overused these days.

No, I do not accept the term BUST for Alex Smith. Truth is, as you suggest, no developing QB could have done much with the adverse circumstances that Smith has had to endure. Fans stupidly wonder why HE of all people would still be our starting QB... when so many other teams have given up on a player with less than impressive production after a few years. The answer should be obvious... no other player in many years has been thrown into such unfavorable situations as he has... and management knows this.

Will he succeed? I don't know... I think so. Could he fail even IF we manage to put a good supporting cast around him? Maybe... but again, I don't think so.

What I have seen is... if the OL protects him for 3+ seconds... if receivers catch the catchable passes... Alex Smith will have a good career when all is said and done.

Originally posted by D_Niner:
I don't think most on here would call him a bust. I think most are disappointed with his performance to date. I mean, we didn't draft this guy 1st overall to be average...

Is he even average?

LIke a game of horse, He has the B.U.S.... He could mess around and get the T in the first few games.. I am sick of the excuses of why he's not performing. I want this team to get it done. Poor QB play has really been our achilles heel.

Originally posted by D-NOTTE:
Poor OL play has really been our achilles heel.

Fixed...

My thoughts..... you take somebody number 1 you want an impact player and a player for the next decade in the pro bowl. If he does not succeed this year and is gone I think it is ok to say bust..... with this caveat, it maybe wasn't the strongest draft (quarterback wise....don't say Rogers as nobody was thinking him as a one) and ill be damned if I don't feel he tried to be worthy of number 1 he is no leaf or Russell or any of those much more "superstar" number ones (I know two for leaf). I can say the organization made a mistake but at least it wasn't a complete douchbag failure. maybe he just should have been drafted later if that's what turns out.

So yes you would call him a bust but I'm not sure he could get anywhere near the people in the top 25 in that category...

Originally posted by HaiGuise:

Originally posted by archcity49er:
My thoughts..... you take somebody number 1 you want an impact player and a player for the next decade in the pro bowl. If he does not succeed this year and is gone I think it is ok to say bust..... with this caveat, it maybe wasn't the strongest draft (quarterback wise....don't say Rogers as nobody was thinking him as a one) and ill be damned if I don't feel he tried to be worthy of number 1 he is no leaf or Russell or any of those much more "superstar" number ones (I know two for leaf). I can say the organization made a mistake but at least it wasn't a complete douchbag failure. maybe he just should have been drafted later if that's what turns out.

So yes you would call him a bust but I'm not sure he could get anywhere near the people in the top 25 in that category...

In a normal draft he would not have gone first overall. Bad year for the 49ers to have the #1.

I too, think it has been mostly line play,however over all talent was mostly the issue. i think that, smiths '06 year was nothing short of a miracle for throwing for nearly 3000 yards. larry allen was a beast, heitman was solid, everyone else was not playing well. over all not a good team other than frank gore and a rookie TE in davis,we had trash wr up until last season.

Now having said that, i know folks have said, that teams like new england and philly have had sucess without great wr, and i agree completly, but the o lines were solid, and had veteran qbs in consistant systems and coaches.

Also, the wr we had,05,06,07,08 would not have been starters on the either of the teams i mentioned above.....they wouldnt have....bryant had a good year with us, had some sucess in tampa, another talent ridden team, now he is essentially back were he belongs in the nfl, a 3rd stringer on a more talented roster

issac bruce, essentially came to us because of martz and the possisibility of starting, which he would nt have anywere else.

no qb on our roster would have had alot of sucess, i dont care who's name you'll come up with, may have had better stats at qb than hill.smith,jto,dilfer ofcourse, but i dont think we would have won alot more games, and we have just got them hurt aswell

Lastly,we went through a re'build folks, now we can play some football

Espn te herd is torching matt leinart saying he will never be good and he keeps throwing Alex smith in the mix saying he wishes smith was good because he's a nice guy but it will never happen.

I hope he's wrong.

The organization was a bust in the way we handled Smith.

I am just excited to see how far he can go this year. Go 49ers!!!!

Originally posted by valrod33:

Originally posted by HaiGuise:

Originally posted by LambdaChi49:
The organization was a bust in the way we handled Smith.