IDEA: Who to start at QB?

I think Trent will be okay after a week or two of practicing with the first team.  From what I understand, he doesn't practice AT ALL with the first team during practice normally.  As I've said before, that lack of practice with Jackson and Battle could obviously lead to timing being WAYYY off.  Once that timing is there, he could take shorter drops and get rid of the ball faster.

Matt Maiocco noted in one of his recent blog entries that for some reason, Hostler was still calling plays that had 5 or 7 step drops.  Three step drops are the key to this week, as the Raven's front seven is really good.  Couple their (Ravens' front seven) skill with Dilfer's mobility (or lack thereof), and more 3 step drops are a definite NEED.

Basically, I'm not saying you're crazy.  Robinson is a leader (mentally) and I'm sure he knows the playbook very well.  He's admitted he approaches his RB job on third downs as a second QB, so it wouldn't surprise me at all that he would know his stuff.  However, as Trent Dilfer showed last week, showing you know your stuff doesn't cut it without physical practice.

Even with Alex Smith at QB, this offense was built around a heavy dose of Gore and a sprinkling of passing to keep the defense off balance. Why do the expectations have to change with Dilfer in there? Any QB in the NFL can be competent if he has time to throw, and any QB in the NFL will have trouble making plays if there are 3 guys in the backfield before he finishes his 5 step drop. Anyone see McNabb's performance against the Giants this week? He got sacked 12 times, twice as many as Dilfer. Is everyone in Philly calling for Kevin Kolb one week after McNabb put up 56 points against the Lions??

Come back to me next week if Dilfer goes 12-33 again against the Ravens. Then we can consider another QB change.

Now here's my piece, so bear with me for a moment.

I think it's not only fair, but completely logical to throw Dilfer's struggles against Seattle completely out the window. As mentioned above, he hadn't taken many (if any) snaps with the first team offense all year, and the playcalling was (understandably) unprepared for his presence in the game. Let alone from the very beginning.

The 49ers offense this year has been built for Alex Smith. So many of the plays drawn up by Hostler have the long drops, the rollouts and kind of route designs that compliment Smith's strengths. Needless to say, what works for Smith would not and cannot work for Dilfer - they couldn't be any more different in regards to how they operate under center. So when Smith, who had taken every snap for the 49ers last season, went down early...disaster was imminent.

You can't just roll with the original gameplan when you lose the...(it hurts me to say this)... centerpiece of your offense early in the first quarter. And I'm sure the coaching staff had planned all week to put the game on Smith's shoulders to win or lose. Having to scrap that and go with the very few plays left in the playbook that weren't designed for a mobile QB pretty much doomed the offense. That is, if you believe they weren't already doomed before the coin toss.

That's the main point to be made.

Secondly, and this is an opinion I'm sure I might catch a lot of heat for, I think that Dilfer is the better QB. If you use the "Well then why isn't HE starting?" argument, then you don't understand what I mean. Alex Smith is the QB of the future, yes. He's the highest paid player on his side of the ball, and he has a lot of expectations to live up to. And unfortunately, those reasons outweigh talent, experience, football smarts and any other factor that might go into writing up a depth chart. But when you're talking about who, on this roster, is most fit to lead a football team as it's field general...I don't think there's any question that that guy would be Trent Dilfer.

Granted, I may show a little bit of bias, as I was never truly a Smith fan (years ago, I prayed that garcia would suck and the niners would draft brees...and years after that, I cursed Leinart for staying at USC for his senior year). But if you just look at the black and white performance of Alex Smith in his not-quite-as-young-as-it-used-to-be career, there really isn't much to smile about. He had a horrific rookie year. He had a slightly-better-than-crappy sophomore season that people liked to refer to as "major improvement!" and he was (save one drive) churning out a painfully awful showing in what was supposed to be the year that we could finally judge him. If I'm wrong, you can feel free to throw tomatoes at me down the road, but I think it's pretty safe to say that Alex Smith is not the answer that the 49ers franchise was searching for. He's probably not even the answer to the Cleveland Browns backup role in a couple years. Seriously.

With the no.11-hate out of the way, there are also things to address toward your criticism of Dilfer. First of all, you don't need to be Donovan McNabb or Vince Young to buy yourself time in the pocket. There is a rare trait found in certain not-so-nimble quarterbacks that allows them to know how and where to move within the pocket in order to allow yourself more time to get the ball downfield. And while I won't say that Dilfer is the Marino of pocket presence, I will say that he's a whole hell of a lot better at it than Alex Smith - who has a bad habit of rolling out 10 yards backward and to the near sideline, and doing it too soon even when there is very little pressure. This is why you see Smith running toward the sideline with only one possible receiver within his area of effect what seems like at least 10 times a game. Dilfer will have a lot more patience and a lot more discipline than that.

Also, from what I have seen of the 49ers failures on the offensive side of the ball so far this year, I can pretty much split the blame 50/50 between the playcallers and Smith. Maybe the two bring out the worst in eachother, but something isn't going very well back there. I don't know if Alex is throwing 10 picks per practice, or if the OC really just doesn't have any confidence in him at all, but the guy seems to never want to throw the ball down the field unless a guy is wide the f open (and then he usually overthrows him by 4-9 yards). A lot of things can be said about Dilfer, but one thing you can't knock him on is his confidence. He won't doubt himself for one second, and if he sees a lane, he'll put it in there. All we really have to worry about is the catching-ability of the receiving corps.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that the loss of Alex Smith really isn't as tragic as a lot of 49er fans are making it out to be. Really, I think the loss of Manny Lawson was a much bigger blow. Losing Smith for a couple games may be a blessing in disguise. I mean, it's not like we could get any worse than we were offensively. And if there's one thing Dilfer is good at, it's managing a football game and letting his defense decide the outcome. During his time in Baltimore, he won a Superbowl doing exactly that. And while I won't begin to compare our D to that of the Ravens team he played for...it's a huge step up from where we were.

So yeah. Sadly, this is my way of staying positive.

Why can't the 49ers be a little more creative than inserting their washed up second-string guy who was, at most, pedestrian in his best years?

Let's see what Shaun Hill can do.  I'd love to see Michael Robinson in there, but it would never happen.

shlecko, I'd have more faith in your opinion if you didn't overlook the offensive line and the pass receivers. If it's 50% for Smith and 50% for the "playcallers," then that doesn't leave much blame for the torreadors or the guys who don't run their routes or catch the ball or get any separation.

I think Smith was overpaid, and I think that they could have used their number one better, but that year there wasn't much demand for the top pick.

I suspect that Hostler hasn't been able to figure out what to do with the O line problems. I think that Allen is washed up. Heitmann still isn't over his broken leg, doesn't seem quick enough to catch rushers coming at him. Smiley seemed to fall apart Sunday. He may not be great, but he's not that bad. I would hope that some of the other linemen on the bench begin to get plugged into the line. The Niners can "pretend" that Allen is still the starter if they let someone else put lots of time in there.

Watch out for Estes. He's been groomed for being a lineman, but he actually played tight end in college. Expect to see him a lot on run plays, at least until Bajema and Davis are back up. Maybe they'll also throw to him occasionally.