Quote:
Originally Posted by Kaepernick
Colin Kaepernick has 20 starts.
Alex Smith has 90 starts.
By 90 starts, you know exactly what you have.
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Not necessarily true though. I liken it to the momentum of a train. 2011. New coaches, new system... train gets to churning the wheels. Takes all year to get a decent speed up, but it can go faster. 2012. The train is still not full speed, but it is clearly faster than the year before. Train then gets derailed before it can reach top speed.
2013. New coaches, new system... train gets to churning the wheels. And here we go again.
All of these environmental and coaching changes... all of these years. Starting over really puts the breaks on. So by 90 starts.. at least in this case.. still no one truly knows. This is why the Alex Smith career is so fascinating. There are QBs that quickly excel thanks to good surroundings... there are QBs that quickly flame out due to poor surroundings or mental flame-outs. There are QBs that get determined to be backup-quality-only after a few years. The reason Alex has stuck around and survived it all is due to the circumstances around him being at fault.. and the coaches see this.
It could easily be that, given the chance, Smith turns his 2013 80 QBR into 2014 90+ QBR. He may even get it up there or close by the end of this December.
No one can really say... but what is clear is, you don't "know exactly what you have." The jump from SF's 2011 to 2012 offensive efficiency was just too large to ignore. People said that 2011 was the best Alex could ever be... yet wrong again. The KC offense should be excited and encouraged to get that in 2014. A full offseason and some upgrade at WR and OL, and this team can compete for the playoffs for years.