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
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