Dear Alex Smith: It Ain't Show-Friends, It's Show-Business

UPDATE: A few hours after posting this, ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported that Smith and the Niners are close to a deal, proving that Alex Smith is a huge fan of The Go Route.

The full post below: 

Alex Smith has apparently been laboring under the assumption that the NFL is a caring, nurturing league whose aim is to coddle him and hold his hand while giving him millions of dollars for the privilege of doing so.

Or something.

How else to interpret reports that Smith feels jilted by the 49ers pursuit of Peyton Manning—after Smith turned down a three-year, $24 million offer from San Francisco. Apparently Smith views a team offering a reported $8 million a year as an insult and insufficient reward for helping to take the 49ers to the brink of a Super Bowl appearance.

Smith also reportedly feels disrespected by the 49ers attempts to woo Manning, who is only a sure-fire Hall of Famer and, even on his worst day, three-times the quarterback Smith is.

Newsflash for Smith—the NFL is a downright cutthroat business that will chew you up and spit you out. You should take the 49ers deal and get back to carrying Jim Harbaugh’s golf clubs around.

Instead, according to 49ers insider for CSNBayArea.com Matt Maiocco, Smith “does not like the treatment he's gotten from the 49ers‚—a cold, take-it-or-leave-it approach.”

He may not like it, but the 49ers are right to treat him that way.

Harbaugh needed to significantly tailor his offense last year to accommodate for Smith’s limitations, and he did so brilliantly. The 49ers were in the NFC Championship game because they played a wicked brand of defense, ran the ball and were smart in the passing game.

Yes, it was Smith who had to execute when called upon, but after a year of sitting behind Smith, it's not hard to think that second year signal caller Colin Kaepernick isn’t ready to run a similar, safe quarterback friendly system.

Need an example of how Harbaugh protected Smith last year? Look no further than this explanation from Chris Brown:

"

With the rise of the zone blitz, the fact that three defenders might rush from one side tells the offense almost nothing about where the coverage will be. This is why, when zone blitzes first became prominent, you saw quarterbacks throwing awful passes directly to defenders who weren't even close to receivers. This is not to say that sight adjustments are impossible in today's environment, but they require an almost telepathic relationship between quarterback, receiver, and even the offensive line.

So the 49ers ditched sight adjustments. But they still need an answer for the blitz, right? Harbaugh has one. If you want your team to throw the ball downfield, you must keep extra players (two running backs, a running back and a tight end, etc.) in pass protectionto buy time for your receivers to get open. Coaches resist this because defenses can force unfavorable situations, like when your running back must block a blitzing defender while three linemen block no one on the other side of the field. But these are necessary trade-offs; the advantage to the offense should be that the three or so receivers who do release in the route should have time to beat the coverage. And, if the defense rushes only four, then the running backs or tight ends can leak into passing routes — a technique known as the "check-release". Remember, this doesn't mean the defense cannot still blitz more than the offense can block — they always can — but by keeping extra blockers, teams protect their quarterbacks from the inside to the outside. They force the extra rushers to come from the outside and give receivers time to get open.

"

Smith has reportedly talked contract with the Miami Dolphins, who want to implement a Mike McCarthy-esque passing attack under former Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin. It is the antithesis of what Brown describes above and Smith would be an absolute disaster if asked to run it.

Alex Smith needs to realize the opportunity in San Francisco is the best possible scenario for him to continue his NFL career before the 49ers decide to move on. 

Time for both Harbaugh and Smith to leave all this nonsense behind and rediscover this.