Alex Smith Approaching 20,000 Career Passing Yards

While he would probably prefer to be judged on his record rather than his statistics, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith is closing in on 20,000 career passing yards, needing just 43 to hit the mark in Sunday's Week 14 road game against the Arizona Cardinals, per Pro-Football-Reference.com's milestone watch.

Never the most prolific stat-compiler, Smith has 19,957 career passing yards through 107 career regular-season games, including 102 starts.

Though he's averaging just 186.5 passing yards per game for his career, the former No. 1 overall draft pick owns an impressive 56-45-1 record as a starter despite posting a 19-31 record through the first five seasons of his career, at which point he appeared to be one of the bigger first-round quarterback busts in recent memory.

Smith finally found success in 2011, his sixth season with the San Francisco 49ers and his first campaign playing under head coach Jim Harbaugh.

However, the marriage between quarterback and coach didn't last long, as Smith was replaced by Colin Kaepernick after nine starts in the 2012 season despite owning a 6-2-1 record at the time and posting a 13-3 mark the previous year.

Kaepernick led the 49ers to a narrow Super Bowl loss to the Baltimore Ravens and then took the team to the NFC Championship Game for a third straight year in 2013.

Meanwhile, Smith was dealt to the Kansas City Chiefs following the 2012 season, allowing him to join an Andy Reid offense that plays to the veteran signal-caller's strengths.

While he's one of the league's more accurate throwers on short passes, Smith has never possessed the arm strength one would typically associate with a No. 1 overall selection. His greatest strength is avoiding interceptions, as he's thrown just 22 in 53 regular-season games since the beginning of 2011.

Still, despite his rather conservative approach, Smith will soon be the 103rd quarterback to reach 20,000 career passing yards.