Alex Smith announces retirement

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by Pawnmower

The funny thing is i ABSOLUTELY used to feel that way but the years of Marty and decent teams beat that notion out of my head.
Basically decades of fielding good solid teams with backup QB's and seeing the futility of it all....
I'm pretty convinced now that maybe there are a few exceptions but basically you need a premier QB to have a real shot to win it all.

Agreed.

Just saying, we went from the perennial playoff punching bag to elite, budding dynasty seamlessly. The idea that we needed to have some 4-12 seasons thrown in between is an incorrect one.

Knowing that, I'd rather have the winning season she to bide my time until the right QB comes along.

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Your last sentence sounds great in theory.

But your second sentence all but precludes that last sentence from being true.

In other words, after 50 years of getting to the playoffs and losing, it got to the point where I never even felt we had a puncher's chance. Going into a first round playoff game, the expectation was always that we'd lose, probably from 2003 on, for me.

Eh, it can happen. Brady's first three Super Bowls come to mind, as does Russell Wilson's one and only. 2007 and 2011 for the Giants. 2017 Eagles. 2012 Ravens.

I'm not going to spend a bunch of time thinking about it, but the 2019 49ers and 2017 Vikings came close. None of those teams had premier QBs at the time.

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Except, it doesn't.... or hasn't in the AFC for the past couple decades.

Kind of a weird time in the AFC having the two QBs with the greatest claim to GOAT status playing at the same time. Now it looks like Mahomes is picking up where Brady and Manning left off..