Quote:
Originally Posted by el borracho
Ah, I see the usual litany of excuses, what-ifs and crys that it was everyone else's fault. If only we would judge Smith on individual performance we would feel differently.
Ok, let's examine Smith's individual performance...
At his very best, Smith has produced:
About 200 yards per game and a personal record of 18 touchdowns in a season. I'm not sure how anyone can judge this production as anything other than pathetic in today's NFL. Smith doesn't even make the list for single-season passing touchdowns. He isn't even tied for 229th on the list... he doesn't appear anywhere on the list. In fact, doubling Smith's best year would only tie him for 16th on the list of single-season passing touchdowns. You would have to nearly triple his production to jump to 1st on that list. Tell me again why I should be excited to have a player like Smith at a cost of two very high draft picks.
Smith may be good enough to not lose games, but he is nowhere near good enough to carry a team to a Super Bowl. Smith is not a playmaker; he is the guy who will likely be just good enough to prevent the Chiefs from drafting a legit QB.
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This, a thousand times this. To infinity.
I won't argue that Alex Smith is better than anything the Chiefs had on the roster last year. That's also dubious praise - kinda of like being the smartest kind on the short bus or the most compassionate person in patteau's household.
But it's a move with limited upside. Yes, It helps them win more NOW with the players here before they are washed up, but it only gets the team into the "win enough to scrape into the playoffs and maybe host a first-round game" territory. They're not going to make a serious postseason run with Alex Smith at QB sans him pulling a Gannon or sans the Chiefs defense turning into a killer unit (even better than the one he couldn't make a serious postseason run with in San Fran).
You don't build a consistent winner that can challenge for multiple postseason runs without an elite or franchise guy at QB. And by trading so much for Alex Smith, even if this leadership group is NOT hitching its wagon to Alex Smith, it is taking on an extreme opportunity cost.
If the Chiefs win an average of 10 games the next two years with Alex Smith, they're going to be drafting in the teens to early 20s. And without a second round pick next year, they're severely limited in what they can do in the draft. Say there's a guy like Roethlisberger that KC and Reid LOVE in next year's draft who's slipping to 10-12 in round 1. Without a second rounder, it's that much harder to move up and grab that guy.
Finding a franchise QB is hard. Alex Smith makes it harder in a lot of ways, because they're likely to win JUST enough to require serious flexibility or creativity or luck to go take "their" guy in the draft.