When Alex
Smith was offered a contract by the 49ers last week, he should have accepted
the offer. The contract was reportedly a three year deal worth 24 million
dollars. Alex Smith, however, has refused to sign the deal. According to
sources, he wants a five year deal with more guaranteed money.
The 49ers however, are showing that
they have the leverage on Alex Smith as the 49ers do not need Smith as much as
Smith needs the 49ers. By the 49ers
trying to sign Peyton Manning, they are telling Smith that the team can move on
without him. Whether or not Peyton
Manning signs with the 49ers does not matter. In my opinion the 49ers only went
after Manning because they wanted to show Smith that the team will not cave in
to his demands. The 49ers figure that by going after Manning, Smith will
realize the 49ers don’t need him so bad and will test the free agent market.
The 49ers know Smith will not get a better offer from other
teams. After all, this is a quarterback who has been in the league for seven
years and he only had one decent season. Sure, that decent season came last
year, but Alex Smith was not as great as everyone is making him out to be. The
only thing he was great at was not turning the ball over. Otherwise he was just
a game managing quarterback. He never threw for many yards in a game and he never
scored many touchdowns in a game. The
passing offense for the 49ers was at the bottom of the league in statistics and
was one of the worst teams in the red zone. That is why kicker David Akers had
so many field goals. It was because Smith failed to score touchdowns when they
got close to the end zone. Alex Smith benefited from having one of the best
defenses in the league and that is the reason why they won so many games last
year.
That is why Smith will not get great offers from other
teams. The 49ers know this and that is
why they are letting Smith explore his options. The 49ers are betting that once
Smith finds out his true value in the NFL that Smith will realize that his best
offer is from the 49ers and will come back to the 49ers and accept their offer.
Maybe that was the 49ers plan all along. Maybe going after Peyton Manning was
just a decoy to get Smith to surrender to the 49ers demands. Sure there is a chance the 49ers do not get
Manning and also lose Smith to another team but the 49ers don’t mind taking
that risk. They must have confidence in backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick and
believe he can lead the team to success. That is probably why they don’t mind
playing hardball with Smith.
Smith, on the other hand, needs the 49ers. If he goes to
another team, he will have to again learn a new offensive system and will
probably not have a coach like Harbaugh that will make him look good. He also
won’t benefit from a great defense on his team. This will make him prone to
looking like the old Alex Smith that struggled the first six years of his
career. So here’s my suggestion to Alex Smith: accept the 49ers offer. Don’t
think that by threatening to leave, that the 49ers will beg for you to come
back. They have other options, you don’t.
Heres an interesting perspective also from gwen knapp, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/19/SP671NN399.DTL&feed=rss.gknapp&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
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