Alex Smith As 49ers Starter Not a Surprise; Either Is Hill's Demotion

It really shouldn't be a surprise that Alex Smith is the San Francisco 49ers quarterback once again.

Drafted No. 1 overall in 2005, Smith had shown in college that he was worth the top pick in the draft. He threw for 5,203 yards and 47 touchdowns with only five interceptions in his two year career at Utah, and finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy race in 2004. He amassed a 22-2 record as starter there, while completing 66.3% of his passes, and was gifted with an above average arm, speed, and intelligence.

There was some debate whether the 49ers, who went 2-14 in 2004 and had the top selection in the '05 draft, would select Smith, California quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Michigan wide receiver Braylon Edwards, Auburn running back Ronnie Brown, or trade it away for more picks. Most draft experts thought the race was between the two signal callers, and many expected San Francisco to take Smith.

The 49ers did in fact take Smith, with new head coach Mike Nolan and Scot McCloughan, then the vice president of player personnel and the team's current general manager, happy with the pick. Paul Attner from The Sporting News had this quote from Nolan in 2005:

"It is just like a game," says Nolan. "If you prepare well, it works. If not, it is chaos. I always wondered what the triggerman was thinking during a draft. But I knew exactly what I wanted with each pick, and it happened exactly as planned. And that's because of Scot. Everything is a first test, how we work together. I like what I see." He likes what he sees about Smith, too. "Rodgers might possibly have better NFL numbers than Alex," he says. "But we'll win with my guy."

The 49ers, however, did not win with Nolan's guy. San Francisco started four quarterbacks during the year (Tim Rattay, benched then traded to Tampa Bay during the middle of the season; Smith, in and out of the lineup with injuries; Ken Dorsey, injured, and Cody Pickett, who was also ineffective and injured), and finished the year with a 4-12 record. Smith put up bad, but not surprising rookie numbers: 50.9% completion percentage, 875 yards, one touchdown, and 11 interceptions in nine appearances with seven starts.

It needs to be said, however, that the 49ers were a very bad team and totally devoid of talent. Years of overspending and poor drafts finally caught up with the team and led to their collapse in 2004. It's hard to believe any other rookie QB would have succeed in San Francisco in '05. Some fans and people in the quasi-sports media deemed Smith a bust before his rookie campaign even ended. A blogger on FoxSports.com using the internet handle "sportstravler" wrote on December 16, 2005 that:

"The San Francisco 49ers made a mistake when they took Alex Smith with the first overall pick of the 2005 Draft...His struggles with holding onto the football have also led to questions about the size of his hands, which have also been involved in throwing nine interceptions this year versus no touchdowns. In a draft that was loaded with good running backs but also featured a noticeable dearth in quarterback talent, San Francisco picked a signal caller...

If the 49ers were smart, they would have traded down or picked somebody else like wide receiver Braylon Edwards. Edwards would have been a nice complement to current USC quarterback Matt Leinart, who could be in position to be selected by the 49ers if they decide that Smith is a bust.

And Smith seems to be on his way to becoming one of those players who does not live up to expectations...If San Francisco is presented with the opportunity, the 49ers would be prudent to draft Matt Leinart and make amends for a poor decision."

Where to start? The entire article was littered with asinine statements, especially the one about the need to draft Matt Leinart in 2006. It's impossible to deem a top pick a bust in under a season, especially one that's on an awful team. Had Troy Aikman or Steve Young been judged that harshly, they wouldn't have made in the NFL.

As for Leinart, who was drafted 10th overall in 2006 by the Arizona Cardinals, he's having his own difficulties; it's quite possible his career in Arizona will come to an end after 2009 considering his mediocre play during the past three and half years. The Browns picked Braylon Edwards fourth overall in 2005, and he's not even in Cleveland anymore; he was moved to the Jets before the trade deadline this season and except for his stellar '07 campaign, he's been a disappointment. Rodgers, who slipped to 24th overall in '05, got to sit behind Brett Favre for three years before taking the reigns of the very stable Packers franchise.

Luckily for himself and the team, Smith's sophomore year in San Francisco was much better. He completed 58.1% of passes while throwing 16 touchdown passes and 16 interceptions with 2,890 yards. He also took every snap at quarterback for the team that year, a franchise record. He still struggled in the pocket and fumbled the ball too much (10 times to precise, including five lost). However, there was no doubt that he was improved and making a lot of progress. The 49ers 7-9 record even looked respectable considering how awful the team had been.

Much of that progress was due to Norv Turner, the new offensive coordinator. San Jose Mercury News writer Dennis Georgatos wrote in December 2006 that:

"Although the numbers may not show it, offensive coordinator Norv Turner said Smith has made some of his best throws over the past three weeks.

'Unfortunately, we've also had some negative plays," Turner said. "When it happens, the brunt of it goes on the quarterback. I go off of my experience and being around him and what I see and the people that I talk to that are watching him, that know the position. And most people feel he is making great progress and is going to become an outstanding player."

Turner likened Smith's progress to the early stages in the development of quarterback Drew Brees..."

Turner's run powered offense led by new star Frank Gore helped take a lot of the pressure off Smith. He also showed, however, that he was not just a game manager. He could win games. The best example of that was on December 14, 2006 when the 49ers played the Seahawks on Thursday Night Football in the pouring rain in Seattle. The 49ers trailed 7-3 at half, and there was belief that Smith might even be benched during the middle of the game because of his poor play. However, he showed why he worth the top pick in the draft; the Associated Press article after the game summed up his performance perfectly:

"The setting was perfect for Alex Smith to fail: His team was trailing, it was cold and wet, and the crowd expected another Seahawks' division title.

Instead, with crisp, confident passes and nimble running, Smith put together the best 15 minutes of his young career.

Smith accounted for three fourth-quarter touchdowns -- two passing, one running -- and the San Francisco 49ers prevented the Seattle Seahawks from clinching the NFC West with a surprising 24-14 win on Thursday night.

'The boy just became a grown man today, baby," 49ers' running back Frank Gore said of his quarterback. "There's a lot more to come."

Smith's career quickly derailed, however. Turner left after the season to become the head coach of the Chargers, and San Francisco's replacement, Jeff Hostler, proved to be unacceptable.

The 49ers started 2007 with a 2-1 record, part of which was because of Smith's performance during opening night at home against Arizona. During the first series against the Seahawks on September 30, Smith was sacked by an unblocked Rocky Bernard. His shoulder was separated, and the injury would lead to a public feud with Nolan. Nolan implied Smith's injury was not as serious as he said it was and that he was doing the team a disservice by acting soft.

Smith came back after missing a few weeks while trying to nurse his injury without surgery, playing three games and looking terrible. Much of that was probably because of his shoulder. The feud with Nolan got worse, and after biting his tongue for weeks, Smith finally spoke out:

I think if (my teammates) would have heard what I actually said out there that day, it wouldn't have been an issue,'' Smith said of the day a few weeks ago when he suggested that Nolan had botched the handling of Smith's comeback.

''But all of a sudden Nolan spins it as I was making excuses for an injury. What I really felt like was, 'Yeah, I tried to play on it. And that was my decision and obviously I wasn't playing well enough.''

Smith decided to get surgery for his shoulder and missed the remainder of '07. Unlike his shoulder, however, his relationship with Nolan never healed. Instead of giving the starting job back to Smith for 2008 (which would have been the right move considering a) Smith was only 24, b) was the former No. 1 pick, and c) only lost his job because of injury, and he looked efficient before it), Nolan said that there would be a competition for the starting job.

San Francisco brought in Mike Martz to become the 49ers fifth offensive coordinator in as many years. Martz, the former head coach of the St. Louis Rams and leader of the 'Greatest Show on Turf', brought along one of his player projects from Detroit (Martz served as the Lions offensive coordinator in 2006-07): J.T. O'Sullivan.

O'Sullivan was a sixth-round draft pick of the New Orleans Saints in 2002, and former starting quarterback at UC Davis. He traveled around the league (and world; he had two stints in NFL Europe), before getting his first regular season experience in 2007 in Detroit. He had a decent arm and mobility, and his performance looked good because he was in a Mike Martz offensive system.

In a very questionable quarterback "competition" between Smith, O'Sullivan, and Shaun Hill (who looked good in limited playing time the year before during Smith's injury), O'Sullivan was declared the starter during the preseason by Nolan. Nolan had essentially given control of the offense to Martz; Nolan had saved his job the year before and knew the team had to do much better then the 5-11 record they posted in '07 to keep it.

O'Sullivan started out the season doing fairly well, while posting good numbers and keeping the team in a lot of games. However, he turned the ball over quite a bit, and lacked good pocket presence. O'Sullivan finished the year completing 128 of 222 passes (58.2%) for 1,678 yards with eight touchdown passes, 11 interceptions and 11 fumbles (six lost). He just wasn't starting material.

The 49ers started 2008 with a 2-5 record before the team finally had enough of Nolan; he was fired and replaced with assistant head coach Mike Singletary. After just a single half as head coach against the Seahawks, Singletary benched O'Sullivan for Hill and kept it that way for the remainder of the season. Smith had re-injured his shoulder just days before the start of the season and was put on injured reserved, keeping him out the rest of the year.

This brief history of the 49ers since 2005 does have a purpose; it's to set up why it shouldn't be a surprise Alex Smith is behind center again.

Singletary refused to commit to Hill as the team's starting QB after '08, and the team even flirted with the idea of signing free agent Kurt Warner. Warner even flew out and spoke with Niners officials in the Bay Area during the offseason before resigning with Arizona.

The 49ers had another competition for the starting role, and Hill was chosen half way through the preseason; many said it was because Smith hasn't shown anything to warrant the job, but clearly the team was not sold with Hill. By refusing to name a starter after '08 (especially after Hill's 5-3 record as starter and good play), and restructuring Smith's contract so he could stay with San Francisco, plus drafting Nate Davis in the fifth round in this year's draft, something wasn't right.

And that's where we're at now. Hill had played decently through six games, but his limitations are very visible. He has a below average arm and limited mobility; he cannot bring the team back from a big deficit, and when you combine that with a bad offensive line (which has limited the running game), Hill just doesn't have the ability to be a long term starter. Hill demonstrates good leadership, but physically he's been exploited.

Now that Smith is finally healthy again, he's been given another chance to prove he can be the 49ers franchise quarterback. He showed glimpses of it in the past, and he showed it again last Sunday. He is physically and mentally talented; his third and fourth years in the league were a complete wash, and it's very pleasing to see the organization let him continue where left off just two years ago.