Friday, March 1, 2013

Alex Smith Trade Grades

Because the upcoming trade between the 49ers and Chiefs involves draft picks, I felt the need to address it and give you my thoughts. I'll be assigning each team a grade, then provide brief reasoning why they received it.

For those of you who don't know, the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs have agreed in principle to a deal in which the 49ers send QB Alex Smith to the Chiefs in exchange for the Chiefs' 2nd round pick this year (33rd overall) and a conditional mid-round pick next year. (Photo Credit: Getty Images File Photo)

49ers' Grade: A-
This was a great trade for San Francisco. Coming off a Super Bowl appearance, clearly they're already a very good football team and these quality picks give them the ability to make their team even stronger. Alex Smith was expendable after current starter Colin Kaepernick came on strong in the 2nd half of the regular season and took over the starting role. So why an A- instead of an A+? With this trade, the team is essentially putting all of their eggs in the Kaepernick basket. That may not be a bad decision as he's looked outstanding so far, but you have to keep in mind he has very limited experience and has yet to play in even a season's worth of games. If he gets hurt or teams figure him out and he begins to play ineffectively, the team no longer has the luxury of falling back on the veteran Smith who has tons of experience and has proven to be a solid game manager.

Chiefs' Grade: D
Horrible. Just horrible. Did they need a quarterback? Yes. Are they better off at the quarterback position now than they were this past season with Matt Cassel? Yes. But that doesn't excuse this terrible trade. When you're a team picking first overall, you clearly need a lot of help. How do you get that help? Through the draft. If you're giving away high picks, you're only hurting yourself and hurting the rebuilding effort. This isn't the Bears in '07 who were a half-decent quarterback away from being Super Bowl Champions, this is the worst team in the league. Replacing one of the worst quarterbacks in the league with a league average quarterback is not going to significantly improve this team's record. Additionally, the Chiefs could've taken their own quarterback (such as Matt Barkley) with that 2nd round pick they traded away and probably been just as well off as they are now with Alex Smith. Not to mention he'd be 7 years younger (Alex Smith turns 29 in May). This isn't a guy that's gonna put the team on his back and carry you to wins. This is a guy who can effectively manage the game if he's on a team with good pieces around him. The Chiefs do not fit this description. This move just made no sense, and if I had to guess, I'd say this team will be picking in the top 10 again next year after a mediocre year from Smith.

As always, thanks for reading and don't forget Draft Daily's big board and mock draft are coming this weekend so stay tuned!

1 comment:

  1. Thoughts on this: Chiefs' Grade: C+

    This Chiefs may think that there is no franchise QB in this class and would prefer to not have to draft two quarterbacks in three year (like the jags need to do this year). They also had 6 pro-bowlers last year (somehow). They could want to see how good this team can be with decent QB play to determine if they need to go into complete rebuilding mode or just upgrade a few positions.

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