Alex Smith’s Amazing Comeback(?)

[Back2RFK]

Originally Posted by MTK

The injury almost killed him. Would a doctor even sign off on him playing again?

Well the injury kind of killed him it was the infection. An infection can also come from a small cut.

[Meks]

Originally Posted by Back2RFK

Well the injury kind of killed him it was the infection. An infection can also come from a small cut.

lets not get into symantecs here

[Schneed10]

It's key to understand the salary cap side of this because it rules out cutting him as a legit option. Alex's salary is guaranteed this year so if we cut him the cap hit would be the same as if we kept him on the roster this year.

So from a cap perspective you are incentivized to keep him. There's no financial benefit to cutting him.

As for what to do with him, I think if setting a culture is what I'm primarily looking to do, I'd let the team see how hard Alex is working to get back, and thus you give him a legit chance to work his way back and prove himself. If he can do it physically, and he can show enough to compete with Haskins and win the job, then you give him the starting job.

Whether or not that's a long shot is irrelevant. The team needs to see that you're keeping an open mind and ready to reward the best player.

And if he works his ass off but still physically unable to perform, then you shelve him again on PUP/IR.

As for whether he'd help mentor or develop Haskins, I think he'd be doing that no matter his physical condition (both Mahomes and Haskins have said he was helpful in this regard). As long as he's on the roster, and like I said he has to be because of $, then he'll be an active mentor.

[Defensewins]

I think Alex Smith is smart enough to not try and play again. NFL is no joke.

[Meks]

I'd root for him, but really wouldn't want to see the guy complicate his life after football just because he wants to play again. Ridiculous contract is right and its a shame from every side that it worked out this way. W/ever happens happens but I doubt we see him on the field again.

[Skinzorz]

I’d love to see Alex play again. He won’t though. This is all about money. He may be on the roster. He may even practice some with the team as a 3rd stringer. However, you won’t see him dress out on a single game day. Best case scenario is that he’s there to help mold the young QBs into being smarter. That’s all.

[BigHairedAristocrat]

I'm sure this is mostly about Smith just being competitive and doing the best he can to recover and rehab with full and free access to an NFL teams facilities and staff. He likely knows he will never play again, but the more he does now to rehab to potentially help him return to football will only help him have as close to normal use of his leg for non-football activities for the rest of his life.

Additionally, he has to at least try to make it back and not be cleared in order for the skins to get the salary cap credit from an insurance policy the skins took out on him before signing the deal. If i recall, the policy pays around 12M (which can be credited to the cap) if Smith suffers a career-ending injury. That insurance company surely would find a way not to pay the claim if it appeared that Smith and the team didn't do everything in their power try to get him back to playing football.

We should all root for him as a human being, but it is almost certain that he will never play professional football again.

[Schneed10]

Ultimately though, whether he will actually succeed in playing football again is irrelevant for our personnel department this year. They’re stuck with his big cap number. As long as he’s trying to come back, we owe that money, and if we owe that money we might as well keep an open mind and see what he can do.

Hope for the best and prepare for the worst. We have to acquire another QB to be Haskins’s backup, either through FA or draft. And if it turns out Alex can actually play, great. But we have to plan as if he can’t and we’re stuck paying a shit ton for another PUP season.

[skinsfan69]

He needs to retire. It's over. He's lucky to be alive. He had a septic infection?? That is crazy. He has the rest of his life to live and should figure out the next phase.

[skinsfaninok]

Originally Posted by skinsfan69

He needs to retire. It's over. He's lucky to be alive. He had a septic infection?? That is crazy. He has the rest of his life to live and should figure out the next phase.

Yeah I get the whole "prove them wrong" aspect but cmon man, this is ridiculous

[Warthog]

Why would Alex retire and give up tens of millions of dollars, at the end of his career? He’s a super competitive and first-class player who is respected by fellow players, the coaches and the media. The Chiefs are still raving about him and how he helped Mahomes and the team’s culture.

Alex is doing the same positive things here for Haskin’s and the team that he did for the Chiefs. Look how much he helped Haskin’s last season to grow and mature. I’m guessing Alex Smith’s interesting association with Dan Snyder last season perhaps helped Snyder to mature as an owner. It maybe even assisted Snyder cut his dependence on Bruce Allen and made it easier to fire Allen.

So Alex Smith keeps trying to come back to football strength and perhaps may even workout in the OTA’s and TC.

Alex Smith was handed a crazy and ridiculous contract by Bruce Allen. Allen was frantic at that time to hire a competitive QB after the media criticism for how “Kurt” Cousins was managed by Bruce Allen. The Redskins are paying cap-wise now for Bruce Allen’s mismanagement and this contract, but the team is getting some unexpected benefits from Alex Smith now. Certainly Alex will continue to assist Haskin’s as he matures as a QB. His grit and toughness in this comeback story is an inspiration to the players and he will perhaps even continue to provide good advice to Snyder.




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[mooby]

1. All this talk about Alex Smith was paid an insane contract is nonsense. He was paid the going rate for a NFL caliber starting quarterback at the time. You can put a lot of things on Bruce Allen, but this isn't one of them. It's standard practice to trade for a guy and then give up a long term extension to complete the deal, otherwise the player might not agree to the trade.

2. I'm not saying Alex Smith is doing this for the wrong reasons, his track record as a team player goes back to when Kaepernick was on the 49ers. He will absolutely be an asset for Haskins to have around. And I'm not disputing his mindset right now is "I want to go as hard as I can for as long as I can, and be the first quarterback to come back from an injury this severe."

3. I think it's a perfect storm of circumstance, we knew after he went down that we had to hold onto him for at least 2 years because of the cap implications. This gives him 2 years minimum to rehab his leg and hopefully worst case scenario be able to step away from the game with no long-term complications. Best case scenario he comes back from the brink of having his leg cut off and plays football again, whether as a backup or starter. But even in his best case scenario he would only be competing for a starting spot on a team, most likely as a bridge to the next long-term qb of a franchise. So he has the motivation to do this, and he has the comfort of knowing his cap hit means he's here until next offseason at a minimum. But realistically, even if he does come back and prove he belongs on the 53, it hopefully won't be as a starter here because that would mean Haskins is a bust. I personally hope Haskins seizes this opportunity and removes all doubt whatsoever that he can be a stud qb in this league. And even if he doesn't, I consider it highly unlikely the Redskins would go into next offseason thinking Alex Smith deserves the starting job again. Alex Smith will either retire next offseason or the Redskins will release him and he will battle on another squad for a starting or reserve job.

[Ruhskins]

Originally Posted by mooby

1. All this talk about Alex Smith was paid an insane contract is nonsense. He was paid the going rate for a NFL caliber starting quarterback at the time. You can put a lot of things on Bruce Allen, but this isn't one of them. It's standard practice to trade for a guy and then give up a long term extension to complete the deal, otherwise the player might not agree to the trade.

2. I'm not saying Alex Smith is doing this for the wrong reasons, his track record as a team player goes back to when Kaepernick was on the 49ers. He will absolutely be an asset for Haskins to have around. And I'm not disputing his mindset right now is "I want to go as hard as I can for as long as I can, and be the first quarterback to come back from an injury this severe."

3. I think it's a perfect storm of circumstance, we knew after he went down that we had to hold onto him for at least 2 years because of the cap implications. This gives him 2 years minimum to rehab his leg and hopefully worst case scenario be able to step away from the game with no long-term complications. Best case scenario he comes back from the brink of having his leg cut off and plays football again, whether as a backup or starter. But even in his best case scenario he would only be competing for a starting spot on a team, most likely as a bridge to the next long-term qb of a franchise. So he has the motivation to do this, and he has the comfort of knowing his cap hit means he's here until next offseason at a minimum. But realistically, even if he does come back and prove he belongs on the 53, it hopefully won't be as a starter here because that would mean Haskins is a bust. I personally hope Haskins seizes this opportunity and removes all doubt whatsoever that he can be a stud qb in this league. And even if he doesn't, I consider it highly unlikely the Redskins would go into next offseason thinking Alex Smith deserves the starting job again. Alex Smith will either retire next offseason or the Redskins will release him and he will battle on another squad for a starting or reserve job.

A lot of people that complain about the Smith's contract, need to realize that no one saw this type of freak/fluke injury happening. Yes, old QBs are more likely to get injured, but these type of freak injuries happen by chance and could happen to anyone (see Teddy B.'s injury).

And the funny thing is that this offseason we may be seeing two old QBs get paid big time (Brady and Rivers).

[SunnySide]

Originally Posted by mooby

1. All this talk about Alex Smith was paid an insane contract is nonsense.

I think the criticism from some fans (me included) was that Bruce:

- didnt offer Cousins (28 yrs old?) fair guaranteed money to sign him long term
- didnt trade him (bc he sd a deal would get done) and only got the comp pick
- traded a 3R plus Kendal Fuller for Alex Smith (33-34 yrs old/)
- then gave essentially 71M guaranteed to Alex Smith for essentially 3 years

Its not revisionist history imo, I remember a majority of fans were not happy with the trade or the contract Bruce gave to Alex.

[mooby]

Originally Posted by SunnySide

I think the criticism from some fans (me included) was that Bruce:

- didnt offer Cousins (28 yrs old?) fair guaranteed money to sign him long term
- didnt trade him (bc he sd a deal would get done) and only got the comp pick
- traded a 3R plus Kendal Fuller for Alex Smith (33-34 yrs old/)
- then gave essentially 71M guaranteed to Alex Smith for essentially 3 years

Its not revisionist history imo, I remember a majority of fans were not happy with the trade or the contract Bruce gave to Alex.

Bruce absolutely fucked up the Kirk situation and I have no problem blaming him for that. As soon as Bruce decided Kirk wasn't worth the going rate for a starting qb at the time he should've moved on to plan B, which would be figuring out his replacement and maximizing the return on Kirk. Instead he kept tagging him until it no longer became viable, then let him go for a 3rd round comp pick. You can't convince me there wasn't an NFL team that wouldn't give up a higher pick for Kirk if Bruce put him on the block. But Bruce's arrogance (or whatever you want to call it) got in the way.

I wasn't happy about giving up Fuller, I wasn't happy about letting Kirk go the way he did, and I wasn't happy exchanging Kirk for Alex Smith. But the contract Smith got isn't the problem here. We got burnt because of the flukiest of fluke injuries, qb's get sacked all the time without their bone breaking through the skin. Shit sucks but best case scenario this time next year we're talking about how to help our franchise qb named Haskins keep improving and Alex Smith is going to retire or compete somewhere else. I like Smith and think he has plenty to offer as a mentor, but do I want him being a primary backup as a qb in his late 30's who hasn't played in 2+ years? No.