Quote:
Originally Posted by duncan_idaho
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.
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At the same time, we've seen
so much shitty football for the last 6-8 years, are you really going to be upset with 10 win seasons?
Especially when guys like Flacco in the latter half of the first, Kaepernick in the 2nd or Wilson in the 3rd are becoming just a little more common. It's getting easier to find a 'franchise QB' these days as the rules tilt more and more in favor of the passing game.
No, Alex Smith is not likely to be that guy, but I'm also far from convinced that you have to have a 3 win season to get a guy that you can win a SB with. You have to be smart and above all you have to
try to find that guy.
I think Dorsey and crew understand and agree with that. I think they also busted their asses turning over stones
looking for the next big thing and just didn't like what they saw. In the end, they
did get a guy that's as talented as anyone that came out of this draft, so that's pretty damn exciting.
And when they decided that this wasn't the year to take a big swing at the QB position, they decided not to piss away another prime year from some great players in pursuit of a top 5 overall pick again. They got themselves a competent QB at way too high a cost, IMO. At the same time, they
did acquire an NFL caliber starting QB and that's going to be a huge relief. It's going to make Sunday's worth watching again, even if we know the ceiling isn't as high as it could be.
I'm
tired of shitty football and frankly I'm tired of the assumption that sucking will get you a great QB. Next year's QB class is lukewarm as well - I don't want to go through 3 wins again so I can pick between Teddy Bridgewater and Taj Boyd.