A year ago I took my boys to the Packers @ 49ers preseason game. The 49ers threw everything they had at Aaron - our #24 pick was not going to out play their #1 pick. Aaron had a not so great day. Of course, he went on to have a pretty decent year.

Yesterday, Alex went 3-9, 0 td, 1 int, 1 nice tackle - apparently he'd make a good FB.

Shaun Hill went 3-7 for 20 yards.

Against the Raiders.

Karma's a bitch.

I feel genuinely sorry for Alex Smith -- the way the Nolan and the Niners misused him in his rookie year has probably killed his chances at ever living up to his potential.

Let's trade Brohm for Smith even up

That's not a bad idea, actually. I bet McCarthy could breathe some life into Smith.

The problem with Smith is that he played in a very weak conference and played in a system that is not meant to make you an NFL starter on day one.

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You guys do know who was Smith's offensive coordinator in his fateful rookie year, don't you?

Sure, it was MM. But one season under a different head coach's (Nolan) regime is one thing. Rookies also do not get the opportunity to go through MM's "QB camp" either, so Smith didn't get that either. Look at what MM did with Aaron Brooks. Also, you have to credit McCarthy with Rodgers development, and the effect he had on Favre's great 2007 season. Or how Rich Gannon credits MM with reviving his career. It's a pretty well established fact IMO that MM is a proven developer of QB's. Maybe Smith is too far gone at this point, but the level of talent and skill set he brought with him into the league is superior to Flynn or Brohm, IMO.

Hmmm... seems like Brohm went through MM's "QB camp", but it didn't have much effect. Some QB's simply lack the "it" factor that players like Marino, Favre, even Jeff Garcia possess. Somehow, these guys seem to "will" good things to happen- and they usually do. Esoteric, but very, very important.

I cant say I've seen anything good from ASmith to warrant the Packers (or I) wanting him on their roster.
For that matter, I cant say I've seen enough good from BBrohm to warrant the Packers wanting to keep him on the roster. The backup QB position (as currently manned) is one of concern for me. Our running game isnt dominant enough to carry a mid-level talent at QB to W's - in my view.

Wouldnt it be a media-fest if ASmith were to become a Packer? The top two QB's of their draft now on the same team.
One went high as expected and has been a bust too date. The other was the slip/sliding story of the day and now plays at a high level. Odd.

This was a mistake by the staff of SF including MM.

I will never ever understand how AR went from a top five pick to no. 24 in a month. It was just plain stupid.

I will also never understand how Smith graded out as a number one.

I thought it was a herd mentality that was just misguided. But it happens in the nfl draft all the time. Especially with QB's.

AR was the best prospect among QB's in that draft. And I though tit was easy to figure. Mainly from the class of competition. In both games against a very good USC team on both offense and defense, I thought he was the best player on the field. That included Leinart and Lynch among others.

Smith got off to a bad start at SF, true. But part of that was how high he was taken. And there is no doubt that AR benefited from being on the bench for three years. He was not ready to start as a rookie. Few QB's are.

But he sure was ready in year three.

Living here in the Bay Area back during the draft, I get why the decision was made -- Smith looked like he'd be able to start faster (AR had to be un-Tetford'ed) and the Niners were in immediate need of a QB.

The reason I said I feel sorry for Smith was that I doubt he'll ever become a decent NFL quarterback because of the way the Niners used him. Nolan in particular deserves blame for putting the kid out there with the sort of injury he had a couple of years ago -- talk about sabotaging a player's development.

Smith's real trouble was that he excelled in the sort of short-drop, quick-decision play that the Niners were hell-bent against. They tried to convert him instantly into a 5-step drop guy and it just didn't work, and Nolan was either too stupid or too stubborn to realize that.

Anyhow, some QBs work out and some don't, that's just the way it is, but I feel like the moral of the story here is that you generally just can't judge a QB until his 2nd or 3rd year, and starting them before they're ready is a great way to waste that pick (and a few seasons).

worse yet he never even took a snap under center

What SF should have done was to get a vet caretaker type then.

I would have done that before I started a rookie who was not ready.

One word: Tedford.

His previous NFL can't miss QB's:
Trent Dilfer 6th overall 1994, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Akili Smith 3rd overall 1999, Cincinnati Bengals
Joey Harrington 3rd overall 2002, Detroit Lions
Kyle Boller 19th overall 2003, Baltimore Ravens
Billy Volek and A.J. Feeley.

For what it's worth, I think that Alex Smith is a good player who was put into an impossible situation to succeed and his career has suffered as a result. San Francisco needed a veteran to start out and let him work his way into the starting job gradually over the course of several years if needed. They didn't have the offensive line or skill players needed for a rookie quarterback to succeed. Especially a rookie QB that needed so much work to become accustomed to a pro-style offense. They would have been better off starting someone like J.T. O'Sullivan or Tim Rattay and letting them take the majority of the damage and then worked in some spread formations and shot-gun stuff for Alex Smith while they worked on getting his mechanics and footwork down. They also needed to figure out a way to find an Offensive Coordinator who could stick around long-term and help Smith with his development. . . instead, he's had FIVE different offensive coordinators in his short career (McCarthy - 2005, Turner - 2006, Hostler - 2007, Martz - 2008 and Jimmy Raye - 2009). . . a different one each season. That's effing retarded. How on earth is a guy supposed to come from a school like Utah with Urban Meyer's offensive system and develop into a legitimate NFL QB under those kind of circumstances, regardless of his talent?

I fully believe that if Aaron Rodgers had been drafted by San Francisco and Alex Smith would have slipped to the 24th spot that he too would have developed into a very good QB for the Green Bay Packers. He would have been given the time and coaching to develop as well as the supporting cast and protection needed to do well. It's really quite sad to see how a franchise could screw up a guy's career so effectively (especially when it was in their best interests for him to succeed in the long-run.) I think that there's a very good chance that when he finally gets another opportunity with a new team that he'll end up being a much better player and surprising a lot of people.

So in essence you think the Packers can draft any QB and turn them into a star? I think Aaron Rodgers is a more talented QB than Smith plain and simple. Smith is talented and I do agree that the situations that they were put in definitely affected their careers but I don't think Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers are interchangable. What does that say about Favre then? Is all his success just because of the environment and systems he played in. After all, Rodgers basically mirrored Favre's production in 2007. Do you think you can just plug anybody into McCarthy's system and have them post a 90+ QB Rating 4,000 yards and 28 TDs? I don't. Not every QB that is thrown to the wolves as a rookie ends up a failure. Not all QBs that are developed at a slower pace excel in the NFL. Peyton Manning started his rookie year. His career wasn't destroyed as a result. John Elway started his rookie year on a miserable team. His career wasn't ruined as a result. I think a QB either has it or doesn't.

I think it's fair to say that most, not all but most, QBs benefit greatly from sitting out a season or two -- Manning and Elway are exceptions, not the rule.

For the most part but I disagree about the whole exception not the rule argument. I think rookie QBs coming in and playing "well" their rookie year are the exception not the rule. Neither Elway nor Manning had a very good rookie year as a QB. I purposely mentioned both of these guys for that purpose. They had pretty dismal seasons as a rookie QB , but they got past it and improved. A big part of being a starting QB in the NFL is mental toughness. Mental toughness isn't coached. Some guys have it some don't. My main point is that I think its a big knock on Rodgers to imply that we could have simply swapped Smith and Rodgers and Smith would have put up big numbers in Green Bay and Rodgers would have sucked in SF. I think Rodgers play is a combination of his skills and his development. The guy was only the 2nd QB in NFL history to throw for 4,000 yards in his first year as a starter. Also let's not forget that the guy has great work ethic. He strives to get better each and every year and that is what he has done. I think its silly and insulting to say that 100% of Rodgers' success is due to his development by McCarthy and the Packers and that Alex Smith could have replicated the same thing if he sat out a few years before starting. I don't think Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers are interchangable like some here seem to imply. I don't think Alex Smith puts up the numbers that Rodgers did if he had been in Green Bay all these years. He probably would have developed and played better than he has in SF but let's face it, he just isn't the QB that Aaron Rodgers is.

One thing is for sure is that drafting a QB is a crap-shoot. Brian Brohm was supposed to be the most NFL ready QB of the entire draft and had a 1st round grade. He hasn't really shown much improvement under McCarthy's guidance. Rodgers improved each and every year he was here. I just don't buy that you can just develop and plug any guy into our offensive system and he is going to excel. Some of it is development but some of it is just plain player ability. Also let's not forget that Rodgers didn't exactly have an easy path to become a starting QB. He had to deal with a very difficult situation his first year as a starter. I would say that what Rodgers had to go through last year was mentally tougher than anything Alex Smith went through in SF. The guy was booed by his own fans and belittled by a consensus of sports analysts who though the Packers were retarded for moving on with Aaron Rodgers. After the 2008 draft many sports analysts were predicting Brian Brohm to replace Rodgers as a starter. The guy had to prove the whole world wrong. So I don't buy the notion that Rodgers had it easy in Green Bay and Alex Smith had this impossible situation in SF.

Obviously you can't prove a hypothetical. Maybe Rodgers would have been just fine in the long term if he'd started immediately, maybe David Carr's career problems weren't a result of the pummeling he took his first year, maybe Ryan Leaf would have succeeded under a different coaching staff, etc. That said, I my personal feeling is that QBs benefit from having a year or two to sit at the pro level.

Am I suggesting that holding a QB out can eliminate his chance of flopping? Of course not. Am I saying that Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers always had the exact same sort of potential? Again, obviously there's no way I can say that.

So really all I'm saying is that I believe it's possible to utterly ruin a kid if you throw him to the wolves too soon, and just given what I've seen out here in Ninerland I suspect that's what happened to Alex Smith. In my opinion, if you'd taken Alex Smith and gave him the same treatment Aaron Rodgers got in Green Bay (and avoided the mistreatment he got from Nolan and the Niners), he'd have been a better QB when he started seeing action.

All of that is just opinion, obviously.

I didn't say that. I said that I think Alex Smith is a talented QB and would have had a better career in Green Bay than he has had in San Francisco. That's all. Nothing more and nothing less.

I agree. It's just my opinion that he's still a good QB, despite how bad he's played in San Francisco. I think that he might do better with his next team, depending on a number of circumstances.

I never said they were interchangeable. You said that, and you keep saying it. I never even suggested it. I think that Rodgers probably would have done better in San Francisco than Smith has, but I do not believe that he would be as good as he's been for us if he would have been their pick.

Favre is a talent unlike any other. Apples to oranges. Rodgers put up great numbers last year because he's a great QB, with really good talent around him and he's stayed relatively healthy as a starter.

No I don't think that. Aaron Brooks never put up those kind of numbers in New Orleans when Mike was down there. Alex Smith sure didn't put up those kind of numbers in 2005. That team wasn't nearly as talented as the current Packers group. I also don't think that Rodgers would have had very good numbers in 2005 if he'd been forced into a starting role because he didn't look that great his first year and our offense was gutted that year by injuries and free agency.

Some Rookie QBs who are thrown to the wolves fare pretty well overall in their careers, even if their rookie years are busts. Elway, Manning and Favre are all first-ballot hall of famers. To compare either Rodgers or Smith to them (at this point) is silly IMO. David Carr was pummeled as a rookie and it ruined his career IMO. I honestly believe that if Houston had passed on him he would have gone on to be a Pro Bowl player for Carolina because of the difference in situation. I happen to think that Smith would have ended up being a better QB in Green Bay than he has been in San Francisco.

My personal opinion is that the five different offensive coordinators in five seasons (especially Mike Martz who basically crushed his confidence) and the beating that he took as a rookie were the two things that have torpedoed Alex Smith's career in San Francisco. In Green Bay he would have had time to develop into a more rounded QB and should have stayed relatively healthy until he got to that point. Plus, as bad as the running game has been in Green Bay since 2003, the offensive line has always done a good job protecting the QB and we've also always had better players at the skilled positions since 2005.

It's my opinion that Aaron Rodgers is a better QB than Alex Smith, but I do believe that Smith has more talent than he's shown thus far in his career (and that most people seem to think that he sucks.) If he had ended up in Green Bay, I think that he's a good enough of a QB that Mike McCarthy would have developed him into a successful enough QB to win games. I'm not saying that any QB would be successful in Mike McCarthy's system, but I also don't think that Aaron Rodgers is the only guy who would be successful as the starting QB on this team. Those were the points that I was trying to make. Sorry if I wasn't more clear.

Fair enough, I was reading you wrong. I've heard it stated by some people that think that Rodgers and Smith could have been swapped and that the situations would have been exactly the same. I don't think there is anyway to prove that. Like I said there have been plenty of QBs that have succeeded despite being thrown to the wolves as a rookie. The good QBs in the NFL are very tough mentally and can handle adversity. It also seems that some people forget had to endure almost unprecedented adversity on his path to become the Packers starting QB. What he went through last year was not easy and that kind of pressure and adversity could certainly rattle a QB that lacked mental toughness. In the end some guys just have "it" and some don't.