There is a bias against Alex Smith with the Bay Area media and they purposely leave out the good things that Smith does.

The guy can play and his next 2 years will be exceptional.

You need to do better research about Alex Smith. Here are quotes from Urban Meyer on Alex Smith that was stated in 2005 after the 49ers picked Smith….

“It’s going to be interesting in San Francisco,” Meyer said. “Alex is an extremely quick learner. However, he’s a guy that, until he understands it, he is nonfunctional. He is a guy that — I keep hearing how Brett Favre kind of makes something out of nothing and is a person that runs around to make a play — Alex Smith is not that kind of player. Alex Smith is a person that, once he is taught, has to learn it all. He might struggle early, but once he gets it, he gets it.”

…….

“I’m going to be anxious to watch his development with the 49ers. Alex is so careful with the ball. His touchdown-to-interception ratio the last 2 years was phenomenal (47 touchdowns and seven interceptions). That’s because, unless he knows exactly what’s going on, he won’t throw it. He won’t just try to guess and take a shot. He has to know.

“That’s why, early in his career, and early in our career with him at Utah, he was not an effective passer, because he really didn’t understand. Once he understood, there was no one better. He learns quickly, though. But he’s not a guy that you throw the ball out there and tell him, ‘Go play.’ He wants to know what is exactly expected of him and then he becomes a dynamite player.’

i say conversations are much different in 5-10yeqrs…

So, I don’t buy into the “different system” argument used to defend his lackluster performance year-in, year-out early in his career.

Yeah, but they didn’t mean a new system every year.
And they also didn’t mean that he could flourish on a team with a group of #3 WR’s

The worse part is the so called knowledgeable fans who repeat these ridiculous terms to describe a player or team.

All Offenses and Defenses have a system, all Offenses ask their QB’s to manage the game (do you really believe there are Coaches out there at any level are saying “hey go just out there and play”?)

Would Bill Bellichick’s system be great w/o Tom Brady?

Per your definition of a game manager her are a couple others.

Troy Aikman-199 ypg/ 1TD pg
Terry Bradshaw-166 ypg/ 1 TD pg

They won with the same type of Offensive system and coaching philosophy Strong Running Game, Strong Defense and Controling the Clock.

Aaron Rodgers is thanking the Football Gods for being drafted by the Packers who had (Stability, Good Coaching and Talented players around him) and not being drafted by my 9ers who were the exact opposite.

Alex Smith is a soldier that’s why Jim Harbaugh likes him, he’s not a quitter and he’s gone through adversity like no other!

Did anyone else see some of Smiths throws in the 2nd half and in OT?

Take the game manager tag and run with it yuntil he proves otherwise.

Like others have said, he’s had terrible coaching up to last year.

Last year, because of the lock-out, there wasn’t much time to put in an offense, so, I think Harbaugh did the smart thing, he scaled the offense down, figured out what Smith could do well, and Smith started to show he has some ability.

Now, with a full off-season, I’m expecting to see more out of Smith and the off-season (whether “more” is “better” is a different topic).

For Smith, this is the year SanFran fans finally find out just where they stand.

Also, I was at the Niners win over the Saints in the playoffs last year. That performance wasn’t “game manager” performance, that was a QB taking the team on his back.

2005: Tim Rattay started at QB for the 49ers to start the season. Eventually Smith started on a team where Kevan Barlow was still the first string RB(Gore was the rookie backup), his starting WRs were Brandon Lloyd(still spectacular grabs mixed with gator arms mode) and Johnnie Morton, Bajema was his TE because the future Mr. Jessica Simpson was hurt for the year again. And the O-Line was a horror story. Mike McCarthy is the OC but since he doesn’t have much to work with he doesn’t do so well. He leaves to become the HC for Green Bay.

2006: Alex is named the starter early because well he was the number 1 overall pick. Kevan Barlow is cut(addition by subtraction) and Frank Gore is named starter, Lloyd is traded and the team replaces him with Antonio Bryant to be across of Arnaz Battle, Vernon Davis is drafted to be the TE for the team, Offensive Line gets a boost in the run game by adding Larry Allen but still isn’t that great. Norv Turner is the OC and gets a good amount out of the second year Alex Smith, only to leave to become the HC in San Diego. Team plays better than expected and this leads to higher expectations.

2007: Alex is the starter because of the progression from a year before. This is also the year Alex had his shoulder destroyed against Seattle and then a few weeks later came back early because Mike Nolan questioned his toughness(which in turn showed Alex’s toughness when he played in pain) Antonio Bryant is cut because well he must not have been able to bring a DD or call a cab and was replaced by Darrell “Hands of Stone” Jackson, Gore has a tougher time running because defenses are game planning but still has over 1k yards, Davis and Walker are the top two TEs, Larry Allen shows age and doesn’t play well. Last minute replacement OC Jeff Hostler is absolutely atrocious in game planning and is promptly fired after the season. Alex didn’t play so great but Hostler’s playcalling was so generic teams knew what was being called.

2008: This season is irrelevant because even with Smith not named starter(Nolan was desperate to keep his job and Martz didn’t want to risk his future by teaching Smith a new offense when he had a guy who knew his O already on roster in O’Sullivan) and ended up having season ending shoulder surgery before week 1. Nolan is fired during the season and replaced by Mike Singletary who after the season fires Mike Martz.

2009: Alex has to compete for the starting spot again and loses out to hot hand Shaun Hill. Eventually Smith starts because Hill was figured out and he had Gore still at RB, Davis had his big TD record for a TE tying season, Crabtree eventually played and played well as a rookie with Josh Morgan on the other side at WR, Jimmy Raye is the OC here and while not spectacular wasn’t exactly Hostler bad….yet.

2010: 49ers lose 5 straight and in those five games it features the argument between Smith and Singletary over benching Smith, and Jimmy Raye is fired. Smith gets hurt and is replaced with Troy Smith because Singletary went with the hot hand even with Smith healthy, then he went all ADD with who he was adding at QB. Singletary is fired during the season, Raye’s replacement takes a college coaching job.

2011: Harbaugh is hired and Smith leads the team to a 13-3 record despite losing the WR he is most comfortable with(Morgan) for the year early. On offense Smith has a better than he used to have O-Line, Crabtree across from the following WRs….Kyle Williams, Ted Ginn Jr, Brett Swain, Joe Hastings. Davis and Walker are a pretty good TE combo. Even with Brett Swain getting a lot of playing time the team almost makes the Super Bowl.

I pretty much forgot why I wrote this novel in the first place. But people like to rip Smith and wonder why he has had so many chances but dude has been through hell. Seriously hasn’t he been spit on by you couch experts enough? If he can’t perform with this roster he won’t get another chance and SF will go with Kaepernick. Gore/Hunter/Jacobs/James is far better than his previous RB corps and Moss/Crabtree/Manningham/Williams/Jenkins/Ginn are by far his best WR corps. Jenkins would be the number 2 WR on last year’s team.

Alex finally managed to be average after 6 years in the league. No matter how many excuses his cult makes for him he is just a guy.

The fact is that Alex Smith is a game manager, in the best sense of the word. There’s nothing wrong with “managing” a game. If you were a five-year-old who had never heard the term or its negative connotation before, being a “game manager” would sound like a really good thing.
The other day I was talking with a co-worker about Luck and Griffin. He made the point “Of course Griffin will put up better stats if Shanahan has him dinking and dunking his way down the field and he never has to make throws over ten yards” Fighting my urges to rave about Griffin’s deep ball accuracy, vanilla offenses in the preseason and whatnot, I realized “Well what’s the matter with a five yard pass?”

If you can complete five yard passes 90 percent of the time, you don’t need the Rodgers/Brady/Manning deep ball. If a quarterback can manage games well enough to get to the NFC Championship, he is a good quarterback. End of story.

While game managers will never be as loved by the fans or get as much attention as dynamic superstar passers, the term should not be thrown around disparagingly. It should be used to describe quarterbacks who integral to their team’s success, but may not make the highlight reel, not quarterbacks who lack the physical or mental tools to be pro-bowlers.

To summarize, Alex Smith is a game manager, but that’s not a bad thing at all.