Official Alex Smith Debate Thread
 

Stop ruining the Gameweek threads and just argue here. I'll get it started for everyone. Alex Smith is not a top 10 QB. Go.

Try not top 20

Carson Palmer > Alex Smith. Real Talk.

I couldn't care less about Alex Smith, but that game thread was awesome.

I wish that people wouldn't get so passionate about what Ness and/or abaddon say. It has created such a hatred for the unnamed player, that it wouldn't matter how they played. It also directly effects any conversation I'd like to have about my favorite team.

When I have to read things like 49ers fans think all of their players are top-3 at every position, it's gotten hilariously dramatic.

That's pretty much the nature of the beast when your team is successful. Look at Packers fans last year in the early weeks of the season. We had to have idiotic arguments about how Finley was an elite TE, Tramon Williams was a shutdown corner, and how Nick Collins was a potential Hall of Famer. After a few tough losses fans tend to get humbled a bit. It's true that fans of successful teams overrate their players, and 49er's fans are definitely majorly guilty of that.

It's not always just the success of the team, but how vocal fan bases (or a couple of people out of a fan base) are about certain topics. To make another example of Packer fans, injuriezzzzzzzzz. Or talking bad about Eli.

lolalexsmith

Leave Alex alone.

Oh lord don't talk bad about Eli. You know he ain't never did **** wrong

I like him, and this is his 2nd year in this system I believe. Give him time and a chance to get better in this system. I liked him coming out, and bad mismanagement of his development has put him behind the 8 ball. Give him some time in this stable system, and see if he develops or not.

He's 28.....not a whole lot of room for development now. He is what he is.

Time for:

I like Alex Smith and have defended him at times; but flat out, he is holding this team back now. 49ers are a team that takes a couple shots at big plays a game and Smith just doesn't make those plays. His lack of a deep attack hurts his team. He isn't even being a good bus driver right now. That redzone INT was garbage and he knew it.

Can we change the title to 'Alex Smith, What Can Be Done?'

If lack of coaching/system stability was killing his development, then let's see how J.H.'s coaching can do for Smith. If he doesn't develop or get better, then I believe a change is needed. If they feel he can still develop the longer he is in the system, then they will need to tolerate the growing pains and mistakes.

The bottom line is that the 49ers are obviously a Super Bowl caliber team pretty much everywhere except QB. And of course that is the hardest position to get a upper echelon player at. As below average as Smith is, where are they getting someone better? QBs better than him don't hit free agency. The 49ers will win enough games with him to make their draft picks too low. And they wouldn't want to ruin a season with a great defense by playing a rookie.

I think the Giants-Niners game was an indication of a terribly predictable gameplan moreso than just Alex Smith not making plays (which happened too). The two games last year all the Niners did was play action pass with deep routes by Davis or very short routes by everyone else (mostly not all the time).

We were able to run a lot of cover 3 because of the Niners not finding voids near the sideline in intermediate routes. It may be because Smith is limiting what the Niners can do offensively, but whatever it is its noticeable that Smith and this offense have big flaws.

Edit: and yes I think Colin Kaepernick (or however you spell it) is a much better choice at QB because he gives a lot more for the defense to have to defend both throwing and running.

Perhaps I'm wrong but I haven't seen an abundance of "*insert 49ers player's name here* is amazing!" threads or posts.

Who, aside from Smith is regularly overrated by fans of the team, on here?

I'd say Smith isn't an ideal guy to have back there but was basically good enough to get them to the Superbowl last year had it not been for a couple of kickoff fumbles and a late game non fumble call on Bradshaw.

this ******* thread does not need to exist.

What I saw yesterday was him scrambling or running out of the pocket well before the pocket broke.

I'll straight up admit right now he's not terrible but the thing is you already know what you have in him. This is as good as it's going to get.

Why not either start Kaepernick, get him some touches or look for the next franchise guy?

You still have an awesome run game and terrific defense to fall back on

Because, as anyone who watched the Giants/49ers game can tell you, when Kaep came in, it disrupted the rhythm of the offense. Having him run some gadget plays when you are blowing out the Jets or Bills is one thing, but it's quite another when you need a score and you run QB Power on 3rd and 5 in the redzone.

Start Kaepernick? In the few times he's passed in games, it's clear he doesn't have the awareness to just throw it away when under pressure.

Clearly, trading up in the 2nd round to select him in Harbaugh's first draft ought to tell you all you need to know about who is the future at QB on this team. So, if the coach who sees this team everyday at practice, and whose job is to put out a team that offers the best chance to win, isn't starting him, then I am going to assume he's doing what's best.

Obviously if you start him you won't be running all gadget plays and who's rhythm would he be disrupting then? Sure Alex can manage to hold that clipboard just fine.

But San Fran doesn't want to unleash the Kaep right now...would be too unfair.

You assume he'd get into rhythm. Throwing out a QB who hasn't taken first team snaps... well... ever isn't going to mesh well with skills players. Having good timing with WRs and anticipation is something which takes time and lots of practice. I figured that would be obvious.

Throwing him out there because Alex had one bad game and one mediocre game (both against rather impressive defenses) is a little bit jumping the gun. They know exactly what the have in Alex, and if they are, again, starting him (as they are the ones who see him every ******* day in practice, not just in the brief windows the rest of us watch) I am going to assume they know better than I do.