After Andy Reid became the head coach in Kansas City, the first order of business was to find a quarterback. Coincidentally, the 49ers were looking to lose a quarterback.
Win. Win.
As Reid and Alex Smith start their fourth season together with the Chiefs, Reid addressed the question of why Smith doesn’t get more credit beyond the organization for his skills and abilities.
“I think it’s how you start, you know?” Reid said on Friday’s PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio and NBCSN. “Your first impression’s the one that kind of hangs with you for a while. So here he was, a kid that comes in as a first pick and then goes through seven or eight different coordinators and different offenses and different head coaches. Finally, he gets Jim [Harbaugh] in there and he settled down and played pretty good football then he got hurt but he was always trying to overcome those early years. Every year he was learning a new system. That’s tough on a quarterback now, I’ll tell you. So he’s been with us now for four years. He’s in a groove and been playing good football for us and, heck, he can still get better. That’s the great thing about football. We can all get better as the years go on, coaches and players. That’s a great thing.”
So what’s the best thing Smith does?
“He’s highly intelligent and he just gets it,” Reid said. “I’m not telling you he’s got the strongest arm in the league, but he’s got plenty strong enough to win a championship with and he knows how to use it. I’ve got full trust in the guy, he’s been a real pleasure to coach.”
49ers coach Chip Kelly may be wishing that he were coaching Smith right now, which may have happened if the team hadn’t picked Colin Kaepernick over Smith. Some (like PFT Live producer and ardent 49ers fan Rob “Stats” Guerrera) think the 49ers kept the right guy. The rest of the reasonably-minded world knows otherwise.
Then again, I’ve never accused Stats of being reasonably minded.