Look, I'm mostly with you if our plan was to build around a future QB. Or if I felt the changes will fix the QB itself. But we've been through this drill a million times before. We know that fixing around the problem will only lead to unending loyalty to the problem. And most of us know our QB well enough to know he's limiting the OL and WR just as much as they are limiting him.

So yeah, if this is part of a LT plan to change the plumbing, great. But if it's just putting bandaids on leaking pipes, I want no part of it.

I have been the biggest supporter of a true game management offense. I get the value of having a good game manager. Trust me, I've been a supporter of Eli where others have been down on him. I've also been very, very supportive of what Alex is TRYING to do.

Our third down conversion rate isn't going to improve appreciably if Alex insists on throwing 5 yards short of the sticks. Smith had an excellent OL in SF and his third down conversion rate there was also pretty bad. So how much do we think this is actually going to help him?

Gee, probably best to never find out.

I wonder whats more important.. A defensive depth player, who can MAYBE start 3-4 years down the road, or a hall of fame LT who WILL help fix our largest hole for the next 3-4 years?

Fixing a 60 sack season Offensive line is more important than a defensive depth player.

In a perfect world where you had unlimited payroll, sure. But if the Chiefs are going to stubbornly stick with Alex Smith, then I'd rather find ways for the defense to win games for him vs. giving him weapons he has no idea how to deal with.

Or you can rewind the tape to his long career in SF and say we already know the answer to that question.

Alex Smith is going to take a ton of sacks, regardless how well the O-Line blocks for him.

And if he doesn't take a sack, what happens if he has more time?
He's still going to go to the checkdown. Especially in the red zone.

Don't agree with that.

Thats true. I'm just trying to figure out how Discuss thrower thinks.

I th8nk he's indecisive because of getting hit alot so he starts seeing ghosts not playing with confidence.

Yeah, that line was a mauling group in SF but they didn't pass block near as well, some probably due to Smith's indecisiveness no doubt.

Alex Smith's indecisiveness made that O-Line look worse in pass blocking than they actually were.

A new OL isn't going to make Alex more aggressive. His style will always be to stare down a primary read and only throw if the guy is wide open. If that's not available either check down or run the ball with no intention of throwing on the run. Buying him more time will limit the sacks which is good, but it's not going to stop Alex from being Alex. The only thing I've seen that changes Alex is the quality of the defense. When the defense sucks, Alex attacks. When the defense plays well, he goes into a shell.

Maybe. But as we've seen since he left, Harbaugh had a different type of gameplan than throwing it very much from a traditional drop back style. That offense was built to grind it out and run the play action game.

I saw a stat a few weeks back that Smith was pressured, in average, the fastest from the snap of any qb in the league.

I'll go ahead and put some of that in him for playing the way he do3s, but when you're getting hit like he has been this year, it's gonna mentally effect people.

Smith isn't a qb that can overcome that stuff, obviously, but as we've seen the last 2 weeks, if the offensive line can protect, we've got some really good skill guys that can get open.

So, I'd like to see what happens if that continues

The team isn't good enough to win now. Period.

They need two if not three new starting linebackers beyond the problem of just being shallow roster in general.

The Seahawks model shows you need a minimum of four years of drafting to field a balanced competitive roster. At best the Chiefs are two years away from that -and that's assuming you include the UDFA guys that have been picked up as draft picks.

Don't fall for the okeydoke that the team beating Houston, the Roethlisberger-less Steelers and the dumpster fire that is the Detroit Lions.

A rebuild is inevitable, and trading picks for vets hinders the rebuilding effort.