Alex Smith Worse Than Ryan Leaf?

With the first pick in the 2005 NFL draft the 49ers choose Alex Smith. Hoping he could be the future of the franchises and maybe the next Steve Young. Where would the 49ers be if they choose Aaron Rodgers or Jason Campbell both who start for there respective team unlike Smith who will compete with Shaun Hill for a starting job.

In 2005, Smith started nine games and only scored one touchdown thats right Niners fans your team paid him 6 year $49.5 million to score you one touchdown. But since he was a rookie you can't blame him for not doing well...Right? Then the Niners in 2006, to try to continue the Alex Smith experiment brought in Norv Turner drafted Vernon Davis a tight end which is a young quarterbacks best friend and made Frank Gore his starting tailback.

He showed improvement but was more Ryan Leaf than Steve Young with 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions.

Going into his third season the fans were hoping the third season would be the charm definitely after his comeback win to open the season. Then he was injured four games into the season causing him to ride the pine for a month when he returned in November he had the second lowest passer rating and was put on IR to stop the embarrassment because by now he was looking more and more like a bust.

Finally the Niners bought in Shaun Hill and J.T O'Sullivan to compete with Smith in the beginning of the 08 season J.T would be named started and conveniently Smith was put on IR with a broken bone in his shoulder this cause Jim Mora to say what most fans had already said, Alex Smith was a "Bust".

Can we put all the blame on Alex Smith for not becoming the next Steve Young? Could it have been the fact that he had a different offensive coach every season or the lack of a stand out receiver. Some have blamed the offense he played in Utah.

So was this pick worse than when the Chargers choose Ryan Leaf in the '98 NFL draft. Smith, made it pretty apparent by choosing to restructure his contract to stay in San Fran that he knew that he would be release by the Niners.