Alex Smith Case Study

1162 Words5 Pages
The Case for Alex Smith Nate Maez COM/170 February 15, 2012 Licia Morrow The Case for Alex Smith Just about anyone would answer that Aaron Rodgers is a better quarterback than Alex Smith. Both men have had very similar upbringings and football careers up until they entered the NFL in 2005. Since then, they’ve had very different results. Rodgers has won a Super Bowl, has fantastic stats, and is deadly accurate when throwing a football. Alex Smith has not won a Super Bowl, has average at best stats, and is not known for his accurate passing ability. However, Smith has faced much more than Rodgers on his way to success. He has had problems with his coaches, and has had seven different offensive systems in seven years. Even though…show more content…
Smith was taken first overall in the draft, and was selected by the San Francisco 49ers. Rodgers was taken in the same round, but with the 24th overall pick by the Green Bay Packers. While Rodgers was allowed to sit and study behind future Hall-of-Famer Brett Favre for three seasons, Alex Smith was pressed into action his rookie season, where he played in 9 games and threw 11 interceptions and one touchdown pass. While playing for Utah, Smith played in a spread offense, which is a stark contrast from a pro-style offense. While playing under Jeff Tedford, Aaron Rodgers played in a pro-style offense, thus making his transition into the NFL less of a system shock and made the playbook and audible calling relatively familiar. Also, Smith has had seven different offensive coordinators in the seven years he’s been in the league. This means he’s had to learn seven different systems, all of which are different in terms of personnel packages, terminology, and the timing of the plays. NFL offenses are so complicated and detailed that it is unrealistic to expect and quarterback who has had to learn so many different systems to have a large amount of success, such as Aaron Rodgers has. Also, until Jim Harbaugh became the head coach of the 49ers, every head coach Smith has had in the NFL has been a defensive minded coach, which means that he couldn’t ask the head coach about what he was doing right and was doing wrong. He had to defer to the offensive coordinator or quarterbacks coach for knowledge and guidance. Alex has also not always had the complete confidence of his coaching staff, like Rodgers has. In 2007 Smith’s toughness was questioned by his own head coach, Mike Nolan. He turned the locker room and media against Smith, saying that he believed Smith was not as injured as he was implying. It turns out that Alex had suffered a grad three separation that initially was diagnosed as not needing surgery. It was later
Open Document