Originally posted by strickac:
Coach has to sound like we're all-in with Alex. He's a FA and we need him to resign. He's said all along that everyone has to earn their job in problem. Kap will get his chance to impress the coaches. I don't think he'll be able to beat Alex out for the job just yet. Alex will get another season to show what he can do.
If for some reason the 49ers ended up without Alex Smith, they'd be screwed. Its doubtful you can just find some random quarterback and have him bring as many things to the table as well as Smith does. This isn't a situation where a guy had a so-so season and could easily be replaced because things really couldn't get much worse,
Things could get FAR worse for the 49ers without Smith. You end up with a guy like Johnson who's tossing interceptions left and right, doesn't make key plays at the end of games as Smith has done for the most part, makes crucial mistakes in crunch-time that doom this team and all of the sudden you've gone from a 13-3 team to a murderous schedule that results in a 6 or 7 win season. Instability at quarterback reverberates across the entire team, not to mention that letting Smith walk after a career year would have a deleterious effect on the entire locker room.
It just puzzles me that the guy has the best season of his career, absolutely looks to be on the up-swing and now all the super-clever morons are like "f**k him, we can bring in Josh Johnson......or hell, let's bring back Nate Davis....ANYONE can do what Smith can."
No. They. Can't.
Smith was drafted first in the draft for a reason. Anyone that is drafted first has to have loads of natural talent, some guys simply don't cut it because they don't have the work ethic and are lazy as in the case of JaMarcus Russell and Ryan Leaf but that's never been the problem with Smith. If anything he's shown exemplary work ethic, leadership and more. He could have walked from this team last year and gone somewhere where the grass was greener but he stuck it out, he learned yet another offensive system, worked with another offensive coordinator, another coach and finally things are going his way. He has his first coach who understands the QB position, more importantly he has his first coach who has his back and supports him, who fills him up with confidence. Smith showed rapid improvement in a lot of area's, it was really the first time he got to show some of the talent and abilities that made him the 1st pick. No, it wasn't perfect by any means, but he showed a lot of improvement, with a limited offseason, additionally he showed confidence that he's never had before. He trusts his coach, he trusts his teammates, an impartial observer would say "wow, he should be able to keep improving, playing in this sort of supportive environment" but all the dumbasses can talk about is some scrub who barely made it into the NFL and shouldn't be anywhere near a starting job or a guy who's relatively speaking a rookie, who's never had a real training camp or offseason, who's one year removed from playing in a Pistol offense in a lower division school.
Instead of reaching for straws, why not see what Alex can do with one more year in this system and some additional weapons on offense. Its all about the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid. Instead of hoping and praying that somehow this team will pull the next Steve Young out of its ass, why not support the guy who is there, who did improve and can only further improve with more weapons on offense. It just honestly boggles my mind, the best season this team has had in a decade and now people want to dump the starting quarterback just because he didn't throw for 5000 yards and 50 touchdown's? Seriously?
[ Edited by Phoenix49ers on Feb 12, 2012 at 7:40 PM ]
