Alex Smith Needs 49ers More than 49ers Need Alex Smith

           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.