Alex Smith Cut (update: retired)

[AnonEmouse]

I'd say looking at the stats alone is misleading. Were we likely to be consistent playoff contenders with Smith? Possibly and maybe likely. Would be be SB contenders and even winners? Unlikely.

What he brought were intangibles like leadership and improving the guys around him. What he didn't do was sling the ball around and light up the scoreboard. As a rule he wasn't going to make catastrophic mistakes and dig us into holes, but likewise he wasn't likely to dig us out of holes others put us in. He was a good bridge QB, and our problem is we didn't give him a Mahomes to learn from him and be the other side o the bridge.

Listening to Heinicke, you get the distinct impression he made the other QB's better (or at least feel better about themselves), the exception being DH. And DH could probably come out of a meeting with Joe Montana or Tom Brady and gain nothing from it.

We need to find a franchise level QB with those intangibles, but with the tools and capability to go to the next level. Better football minds can decide who that is.