Alex Smith’s Amazing Comeback(?)

[SunnySide]

Originally Posted by mooby

1. All this talk about Alex Smith was paid an insane contract is nonsense.

I think the criticism from some fans (me included) was that Bruce:

- didnt offer Cousins (28 yrs old?) fair guaranteed money to sign him long term
- didnt trade him (bc he sd a deal would get done) and only got the comp pick
- traded a 3R plus Kendal Fuller for Alex Smith (33-34 yrs old/)
- then gave essentially 71M guaranteed to Alex Smith for essentially 3 years

Its not revisionist history imo, I remember a majority of fans were not happy with the trade or the contract Bruce gave to Alex.

[mooby]

Originally Posted by SunnySide

I think the criticism from some fans (me included) was that Bruce:

- didnt offer Cousins (28 yrs old?) fair guaranteed money to sign him long term
- didnt trade him (bc he sd a deal would get done) and only got the comp pick
- traded a 3R plus Kendal Fuller for Alex Smith (33-34 yrs old/)
- then gave essentially 71M guaranteed to Alex Smith for essentially 3 years

Its not revisionist history imo, I remember a majority of fans were not happy with the trade or the contract Bruce gave to Alex.

Bruce absolutely fucked up the Kirk situation and I have no problem blaming him for that. As soon as Bruce decided Kirk wasn't worth the going rate for a starting qb at the time he should've moved on to plan B, which would be figuring out his replacement and maximizing the return on Kirk. Instead he kept tagging him until it no longer became viable, then let him go for a 3rd round comp pick. You can't convince me there wasn't an NFL team that wouldn't give up a higher pick for Kirk if Bruce put him on the block. But Bruce's arrogance (or whatever you want to call it) got in the way.

I wasn't happy about giving up Fuller, I wasn't happy about letting Kirk go the way he did, and I wasn't happy exchanging Kirk for Alex Smith. But the contract Smith got isn't the problem here. We got burnt because of the flukiest of fluke injuries, qb's get sacked all the time without their bone breaking through the skin. Shit sucks but best case scenario this time next year we're talking about how to help our franchise qb named Haskins keep improving and Alex Smith is going to retire or compete somewhere else. I like Smith and think he has plenty to offer as a mentor, but do I want him being a primary backup as a qb in his late 30's who hasn't played in 2+ years? No.