Alex Smith found a soft landing spot in Kansas City last year, and now he wants to call it home for a long time.
The Chiefs quarterback told Randy Covitz of the Kansas City Star that he wants to get an extension done, and the sooner the better.
“I’d love to have it done,” Smith said. “I love Kansas City, I love the coaching staff, the players, . . . But when you’re talking about this many years and that type of deal, you want it done right. You want both sides happy, and you want it to be something that is going to last and you can play out. A lot of things go into it.
“With that, there’s still plenty of time. I still have a whole year left. And who knows what will happen?”
Smith’s entering the final year of his deal, and it’s hard to gauge what his market is relative to other recent quarterback deals. They could always franchise him a year from now for a short-term fix, but that would require working a new deal with linebacker Justin Houston before then.
While it’s easy to look at Smith as merely functional, he’s done the part which he can control. It’s good enough to go 11-4 for a team that went 2-14 the year before, moving his record as a starter the last three seasons to 30-9-1, while playing efficient, smart football.
That’s better than other “more talented” quarterbacks such as Tony Romo or Matt Stafford or Jay Cutler, who have all checked in with new deals worth $18 million a year or more.
“We’re getting pretty close to where I’m not thinking about any of that,” Smith said. “But certainly when you’re talking about comparables and what the marketplace is for a quarterback, certainly you’re looking at that, and I feel like my body of work of the last three, four years is right up there with a lot of those guys. No question, when you’re trying to put a value on something like that, you look at a lot of stuff.
“But real soon come Sunday, all that stuff is going to get turned off for me.”
He didn’t rule out negotiating during the season, but the reality is the Chiefs have to decide soon if he’s going to be their long-term answer at quarterback.
And if that’s their decision, then paying him market value shouldn’t be the issue.