San Francisco 49ers: The Latest Alex Smith Rumors and Realities
There are few offseason rituals we 49ers fans have grown accustomed to the past few years.
There’s the annual signing of a new offensive coordinator, the revealing of proposed spot for a stadium and the intense breakdown of every aspect of Alex Smith.
For the last seven years talk of Smith has dominated the dog days, as the Faithful analyze everything from his hands to husbandry, his mental make-up to his mechanics.
Even after all the Monday morning quarterbacking and armchair psychology, Smith remains largely an enigma.
There are still legitimate reasons to believe he can succeed and plenty of evidence to say he’ll fail.
The NFL lockout putting a kibosh on free-agency and OTA’s has only heightened the speculation surrounding Smith, since the absence of actual news leaves local media members scrambling to find something Smith related to report on.
Let’s examine some of latest rumors and speculation swirling around Smith and then throw in a dash of reality.
Alex Smith: The New Team Leader
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Rumor: Local reporters have been gushing about Smith's new found leadership skills ever since he began organizing the 49ers’ informal practices in the South Bay.
Smith’s leadership has impressed CSN’s Matt Maiocco so much that he issued a formal mea culpa last week for ever questioning No. 11’s commitment to being San Francisco’s number one signal caller.
Even the notoriously cranky Tim Kawakami dedicated an entire column Thursday to Smith's sudden skills as a leader of men.
All this lauding of Smiths' leadership has fueled speculation that he is now San Francisco’s sure-fire starter and it could signify that he's finally ready to get over the hump and become a productive NFL signal caller.
Reality: Smith’s problems have never been with his personality, he’s always been a quality guy, who is respected by his teammates and the media.
So it’s not really a surprise that he could gather teammates, and reporters, for these practice sessions.
As for Smith’s supposed mental transformation, we’ve heard this story before. Jeffri Chadiha of ESPN wrote a very touching piece in June 2009 about Smith coming to terms with a close friend’s death and feeling more at peace since his marriage.
The off-field serenity was supposed to help Smith make the leap from bust to breakout star.
Unfortunately, that never happened and his ability to rent out a practice field should't convince anyone he can run an offense.
What is encouraging is Smith is getting a chance to practice Jim Harbaugh's new playbook for an entire offseason.
Team leaders hold a lot more weight when they actually perform come game time.
Crabtree Smith Feud Brewing
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Rumor: Smith held court this week with several reporters and the hot topics was why Michael Crabtree wasn’t among the players present at the 49ers’ practices.
"Great question," Smith said, according to Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee. "Asking the wrong guy honestly."
That was enough to stoke the fires of a Crabtree-Smith beef heating up.
ESPN’s NFC West Blogger Mike Sando took it a step farther, pointing out that Crabtree made some backhanded criticisms of Smith last season, so perhaps the two have had issues for some time now.
Reality: Crabtree’s absence says more about Crabtree than about Smith.
The temperamental wideout has basically been a no show at training camp his first two seasons, once due to a holdout, once due to a minor injury. So clearly he’s not an offseason all-star
Truthfully, Smith didn’t do much to defame his wideout with his comments, he just gave an honest answer.
It would be nice to see Crabtree making an extra-effort to learn the playbook given his struggles running routes last season, but it's barely June, even in a normal season training camp would be a few months away.
You can understand why Crabtree isn’t going out of his way to bond with Smith, given the QB’s history of being benched half-way through the season.
If Crabtree and Smith aren’t connecting on passes come September, that's a problem. If they're not exchanging texts in June, it's much-ado about nothing.
Smith Is Harbaugh 2.0
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Rumor: Props to Santa Rosa Press Democrat scribe Eric Branch for floating the intriguing bit of psychological speculation that Harbaugh sees a young version of himself in Smith.
Long before he was the head man in San Francisco, Harbaugh was an NFL quarterback and, as Branch points out, a bit of a bust his first seven seasons with the Bears.
It wasn’t until he teamed up with offensive guru Lindy Infante in Indianapolis that he emerged as a quality starter.
Given his personal story of redemption, Harbaugh thinks he can coax a similar transformation out of Smith and that’s why he has been so public in his praise of a player most see as a bust.
Reality: This angle is based completely on speculation, but it is both fascinating and slightly terrifying for 49ers fans.
Harbaugh was brought in to provide an objective opinion on how to fix the 49ers’ offense.
If he’s adopted Smith as some sort of pet project it could mean the franchise has another coach who is blinded to the big picture.
That said, looking at Harbaugh’s career arc is a good reminder that even though Smith's story has had more sequels than the Fast And The Furious, the ending remains in doubt.
History is littered with cases of quarterbacks, like Harbaugh, who finally made the leap when put in the right situation.
Let’s just hope that Harbaugh isn’t willing to sacrifice wins to prove he can repair Smith’s career.
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Alex Smith Is Ready to Be a Mentor
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Rumor: During his extended post-practice discussion this week, Smith was asked about the irony of playing next to his likely replacement in Colin Kaepernick.
Here’s his response courtesy of Tim Kwakami of the San Jose Mercury News.
“With the new guy drafted, it did remind me a lot of when I came in, and Tim Rattay, to be honest with you. That situation. And I did think back about how good Tim was. How easy it would be to be bitter and to be an ass. Those guys did it the right way with me and I’m going to do the same thing.”
Once again, given Smith’s stand-up nature the only thing surprising here is that anyone would willingly compare themselves to Tim Rattay.
The subtext though is that Smith is thinking of himself as the starter and someone with enough experience and expertise to mentor the rookie QB.
Reality: As a 49ers fan I’d rather have Kaepernick hanging out with Andrew Luck than Alex Smith.
Again, Smith seems like a nice guy, but he’s been plagued by bad mojo his entire career and I don’t want that kind of negative energy tainting the new prodigal son.
As for Smith as the presumed starter, I’m still not ruling out the possibility of the 49ers bringing in a veteran once the lock-out opens up.
Of course each day the labor strife drags on limits the 49ers’ options for adding any QB competition.
If you take a step back and look at all the rumors and speculation this offseason, the lockout might have been the best thing to ever happen to Smith.
Instead of being a back-up on another team, cast as top pick bust, Smith has yet another chance to rewrite his legacy in San Francisco.
Considering he’s now being described as a leader, mentor, and another Harbaugh, I’d say he’s off to a good start.
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