Niners still uncertain about Smith

Originally posted by lamontb:

Originally posted by Jigga:
I think that we're all uncertain about Smith. It's just that some of us want him to succeed, and some of us don't. I just pray that Alex isn't uncertain about his ability to lead a team. No more time to make excuses...just make plays.

well said homie

I don't know any Niner fans that don't want him to succeed, because that means rooting against the team succeeeding. But I know a lot of Niner fans that don't want to see a guy playing as the starting QB if he isn't one of the best players on the offense. Nolan made the decision in his first year to sacrafice the season to give the QB on the job training. That is not acceptable for fans & all the rest of the players on this team. I know that is water under the bridge at this point, but I think I can speak for a lot of fans that we want to see whoever the starter is earn the job by being the best, and not just becasue of where someone was drafted & how much money was paid to them. It is not personal towards Smith.

Originally posted by susweel:
"a very average arm" His arm looks plenty strong to me. Clearly King has not seen Hill throw the ball.


He is making progress but there still is lot of improvement to be made. I would bring him back and give the offense more time to gell and get better. However if the right QB falls into there laps during the draft, then they have to consider taking him. (Clausen)

Yeah, he has an ABOVE-avareage arm. Not Jay Cutler or Brett favre, but pretty good. Arm strenght has never been a issue. Accuracy has.

McCloguhan is just being political here. SMITH WILL BE THE 49ERS STARTING QB IN 2010. No question. Unless he gets injured or throws 5 INTs per game this final 3 games.

Alex continues to he a hard read. Defenses still, somehow, seem to know where he's going to throw...so yeah, he stares down way too much. Also, a few other well known things & discussed at the webzone, that he needs to change. He played a good game, but those INTs, that's what confuses us fans the most.
Hopefully he will play well against the Eagles and get this team moving in the right direction. In fact, that might be his last chance to prove his worth.
I wouldn't give too much importance to the games vs the Lions or Rams...for evaluating Smith.

Originally posted by SJniner7:
A lot of people are still uncertain of Smith, including myself. I would like him to succeed, and let's hope last night was just bad play from him, as he did have some ill-advised throws and some that were just plain innaccurate. It does us no good for him not to succeed, but we cannot be completely sure if he is the future...

If the season ended today, they would probably name him the starter for 2010, but thankfully we have 3 more games to decide...

I do think he should be the starter for next year. So many of the passes he misses on are just off do to timing. I think with a full offseason & Crabtree having a preseason these guys could be very dangerous next year!

Originally posted by 49ersking:
Alex continues to he a hard read. Defenses still, somehow, seem to know where he's going to throw...so yeah, he stares down way too much. Also, a few other well known things & discussed at the webzone, that he needs to change. He played a good game, but those INTs, that's what confuses us fans the most.
Hopefully he will play well against the Eagles and get this team moving in the right direction. In fact, that might be his last chance to prove his worth.
I wouldn't give too much importance to the games vs the Lions or Rams...for evaluating Smith.

He needs to play well against the Eagles and EVEN better against the sorry ass teams, that's what Franchise QB's do. End of story. I pray that he does, I want this QB journey to end.

[ Edited by BirdmanJr on Dec 15, 2009 at 11:23:36 ]

Originally posted by Jigga:
I think that we're all uncertain about Smith. It's just that some of us want him to succeed, and some of us don't. I just pray that Alex isn't uncertain about his ability to lead a team. No more time to make excuses...just make plays.

why would any 9er fan not want him to be good?
why would any 9er fan want to waist more time and money finding someone else?

the thing he need to realize is that he doesn't have to be Joe or Steve he just has to be Alex Smith

It seems to me that Matt Maiocco is right in that Smith seems to be picking up from where he was in 2006: as a second-year player who is trying to find consistency.

We know he can have good days and bad days - what we want to see is consistent improvement towards more of the good days.

I've been a pretty unabashed supporter of Smith. I would say also that you have to consider the threat Smith represents to defenses in assessing his value. Last night, for instance, he didn't play that well and had a couple of picks, but he HAS been playing well and throwing a lot of TDs out of the spread. Therefore, Arizona is not going to load the box. Gore has a great rushing game, partly because the Niners passing game is no longer a joke. If Alex is on, he can hurt you, and teams will have to factor that into gameplanning. Now, he needs more consistency, more third down conversions, needs to hit the occassional bomb or deep post, needs to run a bit more often...he's clearly a work in progress. But I think McCloughan has it right. This ship is going in the right direction.

Man oh man. Every 9er fan should want smith to succeed and finish the season strong. The funny thing he played lights out against the jags and seahawks(which we lost) and than was not stellar against the cards, but if sing, mcClueless and the rest of the staff will be here in 2010. Why start the whole thing over? Why quit? We need continuity. Period.

Give Alex an entire off-season to work w/Crabtree, Vernon, Morgan, et al and we'll see a lot of the incompletes this year be completions next season. Pretty clear his timing/chemistry isn't quite there yet w/Crabtree, but when they get it together, watch out.

Originally posted by BSofSF:
I've been a pretty unabashed supporter of Smith. I would say also that you have to consider the threat Smith represents to defenses in assessing his value. Last night, for instance, he didn't play that well and had a couple of picks, but he HAS been playing well and throwing a lot of TDs out of the spread. Therefore, Arizona is not going to load the box. Gore has a great rushing game, partly because the Niners passing game is no longer a joke. If Alex is on, he can hurt you, and teams will have to factor that into gameplanning. Now, he needs more consistency, more third down conversions, needs to hit the occassional bomb or deep post, needs to run a bit more often...he's clearly a work in progress. But I think McCloughan has it right. This ship is going in the right direction.

Good post.

We just need Alex to learn how to be better at passing under the i-form set with frank gore in there so we can run more playaction plays. He's getting there, but when we spread it up he usually is able to find the open man to get the chains moving.

Originally posted by Riot:
It seems to me that Matt Maiocco is right in that Smith seems to be picking up from where he was in 2006: as a second-year player who is trying to find consistency.

We know he can have good days and bad days - what we want to see is consistent improvement towards more of the good days.

That has been probably the most concise description of his play yet. Smith has improved EVERY year and is now beginning to show signs of maybe becoming a really good QB.

He is the starter going into the 2010 season, and colour me excited.

-9fA

All I want to know is how long do you need to be in the league before they stop calling you a young quarterback...am I the only one that is tired of hearing that term associated with Smith?

Originally posted by RedWaltz24:
Interesting article from Peter King with an interview with McC:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/peter_king/12/15/niners/

Last three games all important for Smith.

Absent a complete collapse by Smith (or a significant re-injury to his shoulder), I don't see how they have any choice but to bring him back for 2010 as the starter going into TC. There aren't likely going to be any QBs on the market that are likely to offer a significant upgrade, Davis won't be ready and even if they draft a QB high, throwing him in right away would make having a winning season/making the playoffs that much more difficult. Give Smith and the offense the entire offseason to work together, add to the OL and then we'll see what happens in 2010.

Originally posted by ktate14:
All I want to know is how long do you need to be in the league before they stop calling you a young quarterback...am I the only one that is tired of hearing that term associated with Smith?

He's 25....He's gonna be young for awhile