John Clayton's take on Alex Smith

Smith is constantly touted for his "cerebral" understanding of the game, ability to read defenses, and work ethic. I've no doubt he has those qualities. But he doesn't execute consistently and frequently appears to lack poise. He should replace Jimmy Raye and call the games and let Nate Davis start developing. With the outstanding size and speed of our Wide Outs and Tight Ends, and the sure hands of our backs, we should be playing to our strengths, instead of trying to meet a twenty-year-old offensive model (mostly running up the middle to set up the pass and then doing mostly ball-control passing). Instead, we should pass to set up the run.

The passing game has evolved over the past 20 years, with rule changes that support dynamic offense over pounding it out. The running game has not. Our O-Line needs a lot more experience to consistently control the line of scrimmage. We have receivers that could really take advantage of those rules, and Gore and company could tear other teams up if they routinely had nobody in the box because they were always dropping into coverage. Hell... we couldn't be any worse off than we are now.

Originally posted by Shaj:

Quote:
Quote:
Q: Alex Smith might be going into his sixth season, but he's only had two seasons of more than 200 attempts. He put up 18 TDs, 2,350 yards and a 60.5 completion percentage in his 10½ games last year behind one of the worst O-lines in football, and had a higher QB rating than a quarterback you listed as elite, Matt Ryan. But you give him a no chance of becoming an elite QB. Why?

Anthony in Bay Area, Calif.

A: Accuracy. I know he has his completion percentage up to 60.5, but he doesn't place the ball as accurately as the quarterbacks I rated above him. Smith tends to throw passes that are a little behind or a little ahead of a receiver. Remember, the receiving corps around him is very good and they catch more bad balls than most other teams. I think Smith is as good as he's going to get.

Clayton has yet to be disproved. Accuracy is Smith's fatal flaw. We're in year 6 and this charade is still going on.

hope he gets benched next game

There is more wrong on this team than Alex.

It's not about A. Smith anymore. This whole team sucked and it starts with the coaching.

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
It's not about A. Smith anymore. This whole team sucked and it starts with the coaching.

This.

It's like they don't have any clue about their assignments or the X's and O's. They just know hype, motivation and rah rah stuff like their coach. It's obvious he is completely overmatched and out coached in every game.

These guys look like they don't even practice. And that starts with coaching. My guess is he's giving them motivational speeches and not working on pesky things like X's and O's.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
It's not about A. Smith anymore. This whole team sucked and it starts with the coaching.

This.

It starts with Smith. He's #1 problem. Singletary/Raye are a close 2nd.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:
There is more wrong on this team than Alex.

Very true; but, he's still a major problem with this team.

Ball Placement

Originally posted by Joecool:
Ball Placement

What's sad is that even on the short 5 yard passes Smith can't hit people in stride.

Originally posted by Leathaface:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
It's not about A. Smith anymore. This whole team sucked and it starts with the coaching.

This.

It starts with Smith. He's #1 problem. Singletary/Raye are a close 2nd.

Did you watch the defense the whole day? KC's offense looked like the Saint's offense moving up and down the field in whole chunks at a time. We had no answer for the screen even when they ran it twice in a row.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
It's not about A. Smith anymore. This whole team sucked and it starts with the coaching.

This.

It's like they don't have any clue about their assignments or the X's and O's. They just know hype, motivation and rah rah stuff like their coach. It's obvious he is completely overmatched and out coached in every game.

These guys look like they don't even practice. And that starts with coaching. My guess is he's giving them motivational speeches and not working on pesky things like X's and O's.

What's worse is they the players don't seems buy into the coaches game plan anymore. Even with adjustments if there was any, the players still plays flat like they are saying 'whatever' to the in game adjustments. I think the players have no confidence in this coaching staff to put them in the right place to make plays.

Originally posted by qnnhan7:

Originally posted by Leathaface:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
It's not about A. Smith anymore. This whole team sucked and it starts with the coaching.

This.

It starts with Smith. He's #1 problem. Singletary/Raye are a close 2nd.

Did you watch the defense the whole day? KC's offense looked like the Saint's offense moving up and down the field in whole chunks at a time. We had no answer for the screen even when they ran it twice in a row.

Could care less what the defense did. Alex Smith sucks. Til we fix the QB position, all of our other problems will be magnified.

Originally posted by D_Niner:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:
There is more wrong on this team than Alex.

Very true; but, he's still a major problem with this team.

exactly. Matt Ryan went to one of the worst teams in football and lit it up from day 1. if he laid eggs on the field there would be exucses galore because of his surrounding cast, but he just played good ball, period. Bad QBs make their team look bad, thus creating the opportunity to blame the teammates for bad QB play! it's a very perverse situation.

Originally posted by Shaj:

Originally posted by D_Niner:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:
There is more wrong on this team than Alex.

Very true; but, he's still a major problem with this team.

exactly. Matt Ryan went to one of the worst teams in football and lit it up from day 1. if he laid eggs on the field there would be exucses galore because of his surrounding cast, but he just played good ball, period. Bad QBs make their team look bad, thus creating the opportunity to blame the teammates for bad QB play! it's a very perverse situation.

Aint that the truth.

What a glorious day it'll be when we get rid of this POS QB we've been throwing out there.

Originally posted by Leathaface:

Originally posted by qnnhan7:

Originally posted by Leathaface:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
It's not about A. Smith anymore. This whole team sucked and it starts with the coaching.

This.

It starts with Smith. He's #1 problem. Singletary/Raye are a close 2nd.

Did you watch the defense the whole day? KC's offense looked like the Saint's offense moving up and down the field in whole chunks at a time. We had no answer for the screen even when they ran it twice in a row.

Could care less what the defense did. Alex Smith sucks. Til we fix the QB position, all of our other problems will be magnified.

Then there's no point in discussing the team with you... I just thought we are talking about the Niners as a fan. At this point at 0-3 you must look at the team as a whole and not just one player. If it was that easy just to replace Smith and we would go undefeated the next 5 games, I would all be for it but that's not a realistic fix.