By Dan Nied
It is unfair to compare Alex Smith to Aaron Rodgers.
Bonded by draft class and nothing else, Rodgers has become one of the NFL's top 10 quarterbacks while Smith toils in the land of the unknown, grasping desperately at what is likely his last shot as a starting quarterback.
In 2005 there was a legitimate Smith-Rodgers debate for the 49ers, holders of the first overall draft pick.
Rodgers was a star at nearby Cal while Smith burst onto the scene as a mobile, smart quarterback under Urban Meyer's spread-option system at Utah. The 49ers had an easy choice in that whomever they chose couldn't miss.
But their choice did miss.
Rodgers eventually went 24th overall to the Packers as the heir apparent to Brett Favre.
He would sit and learn for three seasons.
Smith started almost immediately.
Rodgers, of course, is a star now, leading the Packers to the playoffs in his second season as a starter.
The story of Rodgers' career is simple: Wait, start, star. He's had the same offensive system his entire career and an influx of talented receivers to hide his mistakes. Sliding to the Packers in the draft was the best thing that could have happened to Rodgers.
But Smith? He took a road in which a successful ending was never possible.
Five years in the league, five different offensive coordinators, five different offensive systems. He lost his starting job because of injury, endured a feud with coach Mike Nolan, the man who drafted him, and threw to a depleted, talentless receiving corps that did him no favors.
Certainly Rodgers is the better quarterback today. But it is indisputable that the 49ers botched Smith's development in every possible.
The end seemed to come when a shoulder injury kept him out for part of the 2006 season, and Nolan refused to restore Smith's starting spot upon his return.
It's hard to blame Nolan, really. He was already hanging by a thread as a coach -- largely because offensive coordinator Jim Hostler was woefully unprepared for the job -- and he couldn't afford to let Smith finish the job. The next year, Mike Martz replaced Hostler and chose J.T. O'Sullivan to start over Smith. When O'Sullivan proved unworthy of the spot, Martz and Nolan turned to journeyman Shaun Hill over Smith.
In four seasons, Smith had gone from savior to pariah, from hopeful to hopeless. It was taken as common knowledge that he was a bust, despite the fact that he was fighting an unwinnable fight. Smith was never given the benefit of the doubt by Nolan. Never given a chance to relax and develop. Never given even a decent possession receiver with which to find the right chemistry.
Smith was tossed on the bust pile with Akili Smith, Ryan Leaf, Joey Harrington and so many others. But the difference was that those guys got fair shots and proved they couldn't handle quarterbacking in the NFL. Smith never got a chance to let his potential reach the surface. Too busy looking over his shoulder. Too busy wondering when help would arrive.
Football is the ultimate team game. Unfortunately, the 49ers blamed their woes on one man. Perhaps with a bit of coddling and plenty more stability, Smith would have become something more than an experiment in 2009.
Perhaps he would have been the franchise.
But it took Mike Singletary half a season in 2009 to give Smith his last chance. The now-veteran quarterback is still going through ups and downs. Smith has responded with mostly ups. But because of his past, Smith's margin for error is razor thin. In order to secure the starting role for 2010, he'll have to be nearly perfect in these last two games.
But then again, maybe Singletary and the 49ers should give Smith a longer leash this time. Maybe keep the offensive system in place this time. Perhaps name him the 2010 starter immediately after the season finale. Because talent doesn't disappear. And if Alex Smith was talented enough to be drafted first overall, and tough enough to withstand unfairly becoming the scapegoat for a failed franchise, then he deserves a real second chance to compete with Rodgers.
-- A version of this column appeared in the Dec. 26 , 2009 edition of the Vallejo Times-Herald
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Stafford looking like all the rest
By Dan Nied
Matthew Stafford is not Joey Harrington.
Except that he is. Just like he is Chuck Long, Andre Ware, Rodney Peete and Scott Mitchell.
Among the most difficult tasks in the sporting world these days is to actually distinguish between the latest saviors of the Detroit Lions.
No Lions quarterback has gone to the Pro Bowl since Greg Landry in 1971. The Lions wasted the Barry Sanders era with a revolving door of would-be capable quarterbacks and one playoff win.
The Lions drafted Harrington in 2002 and mangled his development so badly, Harrington replaced Ryan Leaf as the quintessential high draft quarterback bust.
Before Stafford each new Lions quarterback was greeted as the savior and run out of town in shame.
Rusty Hilger, Jeff Komlo, Gary Danielson, Josh McCown, Jeff Garcia. An endless string of names that either buckled under the pressure of reviving a downtrodden franchise or never had enough resources to make such a revival possible.
So here comes Stafford, the top overall pick out of Georgia, another pretty boy savior of a hopeless cause. Why is Stafford any different? Maybe he’s not.
Halfway through his rookie season, Stafford looks like all the rest. A few missed games with injuries, more than a few rookie mistakes, plenty of heat already from a restless fan base.
And during last Sunday’s loss to Seattle, Stafford took a break from throwing five interceptions to get in a shouting match with top receiver Calvin Johnson.
Half a season in, Stafford is Joey Harrington with a little more fire.
Sure, the kid looks like a world-beater at times. A gorgeous scoring pass to Bryant Johnson Sunday made him look like The One.
But when Harrington tossed two perfect touchdown passes to Charles Rogers in the 2003 opener, he looked like The One as well.
It was Harrington’s lone bit of glory and the start of a nasty downward spiral.
It’s not that Stafford should be written off as a Harrington clone. It’s just that we’ve seen this story before. It starts with hope, and it ends with the former golden boy slinking off to a series of backup jobs around the NFL, and the Lions replacing him with the latest doomed quarterback prodigy.
For his part, Stafford seems to have thicker skin than Harrington. And he is definitely more polished than Ware, who couldn’t even win a starting job from Peete and Erik Kramer in the early 1990s.
And maybe that mental toughness will separate Stafford from the rest of this sorry list. Maybe that’s the ingredient that was missing all this time. In Johnson, Stafford has his go-to receiver. In Kevin Smith, he has a serviceable running back. In Jim Schwartz, he has a coach that actually seems to know how to handle a football team.
But the Lions have a way of taking talent out of the equation. A player or coach tends to get dragged into the losing culture, and talent is no match for an overriding sense of failure.
Stafford has eight games left in his rookie season, and sadly he can do nothing in those eight games to relieve the stigma that comes with quarterbacking the Lions.
The answers will come in the next two seasons. He’ll need that thick skin to allow time for the game to slow down, for a porous offensive line to become solidified, to develop a real chemistry with Johnson.
Because the people of Detroit demand results now. And who can blame them after the last 20 years? In Sanders they saw the greatest running back of all time squandered in losing causes. In Harrington, they bought into unrealistic expectations only to see him flounder repeatedly. In Matt Millen, they saw a general manager too inept to learn from his own mistakes and too stubborn to quit.
And then they saw an 0-16 season.
One player can’t change that history. But Stafford is the only one who can lead the charge.
But until he somehow separates himself from the rest of the sorry quarterbacks in Lions history, Stafford will be just another Joey Harrington. Another Andre Ware. Another Scott Mitchell.
Just the latest in a long lineage of losers.
Matthew Stafford is not Joey Harrington.
Except that he is. Just like he is Chuck Long, Andre Ware, Rodney Peete and Scott Mitchell.
Among the most difficult tasks in the sporting world these days is to actually distinguish between the latest saviors of the Detroit Lions.
No Lions quarterback has gone to the Pro Bowl since Greg Landry in 1971. The Lions wasted the Barry Sanders era with a revolving door of would-be capable quarterbacks and one playoff win.
The Lions drafted Harrington in 2002 and mangled his development so badly, Harrington replaced Ryan Leaf as the quintessential high draft quarterback bust.
Before Stafford each new Lions quarterback was greeted as the savior and run out of town in shame.
Rusty Hilger, Jeff Komlo, Gary Danielson, Josh McCown, Jeff Garcia. An endless string of names that either buckled under the pressure of reviving a downtrodden franchise or never had enough resources to make such a revival possible.
So here comes Stafford, the top overall pick out of Georgia, another pretty boy savior of a hopeless cause. Why is Stafford any different? Maybe he’s not.
Halfway through his rookie season, Stafford looks like all the rest. A few missed games with injuries, more than a few rookie mistakes, plenty of heat already from a restless fan base.
And during last Sunday’s loss to Seattle, Stafford took a break from throwing five interceptions to get in a shouting match with top receiver Calvin Johnson.
Half a season in, Stafford is Joey Harrington with a little more fire.
Sure, the kid looks like a world-beater at times. A gorgeous scoring pass to Bryant Johnson Sunday made him look like The One.
But when Harrington tossed two perfect touchdown passes to Charles Rogers in the 2003 opener, he looked like The One as well.
It was Harrington’s lone bit of glory and the start of a nasty downward spiral.
It’s not that Stafford should be written off as a Harrington clone. It’s just that we’ve seen this story before. It starts with hope, and it ends with the former golden boy slinking off to a series of backup jobs around the NFL, and the Lions replacing him with the latest doomed quarterback prodigy.
For his part, Stafford seems to have thicker skin than Harrington. And he is definitely more polished than Ware, who couldn’t even win a starting job from Peete and Erik Kramer in the early 1990s.
And maybe that mental toughness will separate Stafford from the rest of this sorry list. Maybe that’s the ingredient that was missing all this time. In Johnson, Stafford has his go-to receiver. In Kevin Smith, he has a serviceable running back. In Jim Schwartz, he has a coach that actually seems to know how to handle a football team.
But the Lions have a way of taking talent out of the equation. A player or coach tends to get dragged into the losing culture, and talent is no match for an overriding sense of failure.
Stafford has eight games left in his rookie season, and sadly he can do nothing in those eight games to relieve the stigma that comes with quarterbacking the Lions.
The answers will come in the next two seasons. He’ll need that thick skin to allow time for the game to slow down, for a porous offensive line to become solidified, to develop a real chemistry with Johnson.
Because the people of Detroit demand results now. And who can blame them after the last 20 years? In Sanders they saw the greatest running back of all time squandered in losing causes. In Harrington, they bought into unrealistic expectations only to see him flounder repeatedly. In Matt Millen, they saw a general manager too inept to learn from his own mistakes and too stubborn to quit.
And then they saw an 0-16 season.
One player can’t change that history. But Stafford is the only one who can lead the charge.
But until he somehow separates himself from the rest of the sorry quarterbacks in Lions history, Stafford will be just another Joey Harrington. Another Andre Ware. Another Scott Mitchell.
Just the latest in a long lineage of losers.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
When will the Raiders ever learn?
By Dan Nied
In the case of the NFL v. Tom Cable, the main culprit is... Well, it’s not Tom Cable.
Maybe the Raiders coach allegedly battered assistant Randy Hansen into jaw-breaking submission. Maybe Cable has a history of domestic violence, as ESPN reported last week. Maybe Cable is obviously in over his head as an NFL head coach – as Oakland’s 2-6 record suggests.
But if a guy has a history of violent activity and uncontrollable outbursts of anger, is it any wonder that pesky behavior would rear its ugly head again?
The Raiders should have known that, with Cable, they were getting an unstable hot head who doesn’t exactly buy into the social contract.
But the Raiders didn’t know. And that’s why the Raiders – not Cable – are deserving of the NFL hammer on this one.
Had owner Al Davis properly vetted his current head coach, he might have found that a guy who supposedly batters women is not fit to be a leader of men.
He might have found that Cable’s history of abuse is not the ideal path for a return to glory.
Oh, but that’s a difficult process, right? All that investigative work, all those messy phone calls and awkward interviews. Davis might have even had to hire an outside company to get the job done right.
Or he could have called Cable’s ex-wife and former girlfriend, who both told ESPN that the coach hit them.
True, he-said-she-said accusations from a potentially-bitter former spouses might not have been enough to disqualify Cable from the job. But at the very least they would have raised some serious red flags. Flags that deserve to be investigated a little bit more.
And then Davis could have gotten Cable’s side of the story, and then maybe, just maybe, Davis might have figured out that Cable wasn’t his man.
It’s not Cable’s fault the Raiders didn’t perform due diligence. It’s the Raiders fault, which is no surprise.
The most barbaric fan might suggest that Cable’s fist-raising ways represent a throwback to the old Raiders mystique. Certainly the burly, crop-topped, take no guff Cable fits the Raiders caricature more than his pretty boy predecessor Lane Kiffin.
But in the reality of modern society, there is no place in leadership for a man who allegedly raised his hand on a woman. And even in the all-testosterone world of the NFL, there is no place to break the jaw of an underling, which is what Hansen says Cable did during training camp in Napa, though the Napa authorities declined to pursue the case.
Though it should be noted that none of these allegations have been proven true, they do create a disturbing trend for a man who has one of the most coveted jobs in America.
Violence at home and in the workplace is as antiquated a notion as separate water fountains for whites and blacks. No matter how perfectly Cable fits the Raiders rough around the edges persona, the team needs to start living in the real world.
Which is why the NFL needs to take control of the once-proud franchise. Since the Super Bowl loss in 2002, Davis has proven himself unable to adapt to the winds of change in both society and the NFL. He has led the Raiders down a putrid path of subservience to the rest of the league, as a 26-78 record since 2003 might suggest. And as though losing wasn’t enough, Davis has turned the Raiders into a football sideshow by stumbling head first into garish controversies and embarrassing disputes.
The team’s executives have had physical confrontations with media members, and the organization seems determined to ban anyone with a critical opinion from its facilities. Just ask Rich Gannon. Currently, the on-field distractions come from Jamarcus Russell, the top-pick quarterback who, in only his third season, is in danger of eating and lounging himself out of the league.
The Cable embarassment – which will almost surely end with him losing his job, and the team performing another comedic coach search – is just the latest illustration of an organization that has spun out of control.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell must wrestle control of the Raiders away from Davis, and restore respect to a formerly proud franchise.
Because, though the Cable controversy will eventually subside, another unnecessary drama will soon take its place.
That’s just the way of the Raiders.
In the case of the NFL v. Tom Cable, the main culprit is... Well, it’s not Tom Cable.
Maybe the Raiders coach allegedly battered assistant Randy Hansen into jaw-breaking submission. Maybe Cable has a history of domestic violence, as ESPN reported last week. Maybe Cable is obviously in over his head as an NFL head coach – as Oakland’s 2-6 record suggests.
But if a guy has a history of violent activity and uncontrollable outbursts of anger, is it any wonder that pesky behavior would rear its ugly head again?
The Raiders should have known that, with Cable, they were getting an unstable hot head who doesn’t exactly buy into the social contract.
But the Raiders didn’t know. And that’s why the Raiders – not Cable – are deserving of the NFL hammer on this one.
Had owner Al Davis properly vetted his current head coach, he might have found that a guy who supposedly batters women is not fit to be a leader of men.
He might have found that Cable’s history of abuse is not the ideal path for a return to glory.
Oh, but that’s a difficult process, right? All that investigative work, all those messy phone calls and awkward interviews. Davis might have even had to hire an outside company to get the job done right.
Or he could have called Cable’s ex-wife and former girlfriend, who both told ESPN that the coach hit them.
True, he-said-she-said accusations from a potentially-bitter former spouses might not have been enough to disqualify Cable from the job. But at the very least they would have raised some serious red flags. Flags that deserve to be investigated a little bit more.
And then Davis could have gotten Cable’s side of the story, and then maybe, just maybe, Davis might have figured out that Cable wasn’t his man.
It’s not Cable’s fault the Raiders didn’t perform due diligence. It’s the Raiders fault, which is no surprise.
The most barbaric fan might suggest that Cable’s fist-raising ways represent a throwback to the old Raiders mystique. Certainly the burly, crop-topped, take no guff Cable fits the Raiders caricature more than his pretty boy predecessor Lane Kiffin.
But in the reality of modern society, there is no place in leadership for a man who allegedly raised his hand on a woman. And even in the all-testosterone world of the NFL, there is no place to break the jaw of an underling, which is what Hansen says Cable did during training camp in Napa, though the Napa authorities declined to pursue the case.
Though it should be noted that none of these allegations have been proven true, they do create a disturbing trend for a man who has one of the most coveted jobs in America.
Violence at home and in the workplace is as antiquated a notion as separate water fountains for whites and blacks. No matter how perfectly Cable fits the Raiders rough around the edges persona, the team needs to start living in the real world.
Which is why the NFL needs to take control of the once-proud franchise. Since the Super Bowl loss in 2002, Davis has proven himself unable to adapt to the winds of change in both society and the NFL. He has led the Raiders down a putrid path of subservience to the rest of the league, as a 26-78 record since 2003 might suggest. And as though losing wasn’t enough, Davis has turned the Raiders into a football sideshow by stumbling head first into garish controversies and embarrassing disputes.
The team’s executives have had physical confrontations with media members, and the organization seems determined to ban anyone with a critical opinion from its facilities. Just ask Rich Gannon. Currently, the on-field distractions come from Jamarcus Russell, the top-pick quarterback who, in only his third season, is in danger of eating and lounging himself out of the league.
The Cable embarassment – which will almost surely end with him losing his job, and the team performing another comedic coach search – is just the latest illustration of an organization that has spun out of control.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell must wrestle control of the Raiders away from Davis, and restore respect to a formerly proud franchise.
Because, though the Cable controversy will eventually subside, another unnecessary drama will soon take its place.
That’s just the way of the Raiders.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Hey! I got a blog
What does Dan Nied think? A lot of things. But here, you'll get mostly thoughts on sports. I wanted to start this blog just to have a central place for my work.
Oh, you don't know about my work? Well let me update you. I am a sports writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I like to spout off about things from time to time.
If you knew me, you'd categorize me as the loudest guy in the room. Since you probably don't know me, I'll just have to be the loudest guy on Blogger.
But that doesn't mean I am just shouting to shout. I have a point to make here. Which, of course, you'll see as we go along. This is the central location for all things that say "Dan Nied" at the top.
If you need some status here, I have worked at newspapers and Web sites around the nation, but settled three years ago in California. I won seven Colorado Press Association awards for features, columns and event stories. I've covered the NFL, MLB, NCAA and NHL, and a ton of high school games.
So yep, that's me. check in from time to time and see what's new on What Dan Nied Thinks.
Oh, you don't know about my work? Well let me update you. I am a sports writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I like to spout off about things from time to time.
If you knew me, you'd categorize me as the loudest guy in the room. Since you probably don't know me, I'll just have to be the loudest guy on Blogger.
But that doesn't mean I am just shouting to shout. I have a point to make here. Which, of course, you'll see as we go along. This is the central location for all things that say "Dan Nied" at the top.
If you need some status here, I have worked at newspapers and Web sites around the nation, but settled three years ago in California. I won seven Colorado Press Association awards for features, columns and event stories. I've covered the NFL, MLB, NCAA and NHL, and a ton of high school games.
So yep, that's me. check in from time to time and see what's new on What Dan Nied Thinks.
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