Shaun Hill vs. Alex Smith: Round 2

but week 6-8?

playing QB like a seasoned veteran should, exhibiting accuracy, poise, and excellent game management skills. Alex still looks like a high school kid trying to play QB in college. The game is WAY too fast for him and without the natural instincts required of a QB, he has reached his apex.

I expect to see Hill start the season and play well, with Smith in reserve in case of injury. I think he can be a better quarterback in the long run, but we’re talking a real long run, next year or the year after, and in that time the Niners may find someone else (Davis or someone they sign next year).

I am not a Smith hater at all and hope he does eventually succeed. I just feel that Hill is the better quarterback now and should fit in real well with the running game and a realistic (un-Martz) passing scheme.

Smith had to have a superb preseason to have a shot at starting, and so far he has not shown much. Though it is supposed to be fair competition, Hill had the edge the whole time simply because of his better track record even in its smaller sample size. Singletary knows exactly what he has with Hill, a guy that can manage the offense to sustain drives, goes through his reads pretty quickly and he can even run a little bit when the pocket’s gone. Hill won’t be chucking 70 yard bombs but his arm is good enough with decent accuracy under 25 yards.

Smith has the strong arm but he looks gunshy at times that has resulted in sacks. He simply can’t read the defense quick enough to go through his progressions and sometimes he failed to step up in the pocket to pass rather than run outside. If he starts tomorrow, I would like to see him to show some improvements and get a score or two against the Raiders’ 1st team defense who actually is decent.

I know his performance so far on the NFL has been more than disapointing, but I supose that a number 1 overall pick must have some potential, the guy has gone through a lot during his short career, but now he is more mature, and it´s about time for him to show what level he can achieve. I think if given the chance, he could be a real surprise this year.

I’m an Alex fan and entering camp I was hoping he would out play Hill and take the starting job. It’s Hill’s job to lose based on last year and Alex hasn’t done enough yet to make a switch. I hope Alex steps it up the rest of preseason, but for now it’s Hill’s job.

Alex Smith starting tomorrow (per Maiocco’s Twitter). Not a surprise, but worth noting.

I think people are being too critical of Smith when there were so few snaps to really get a good feel for him. After going back and watching the game again, I think he did pretty good job. There were 5 mistakes, 1 of which was for sure his fault on the screen to Coffee. The other 3, not so much.

One the sack, I saw him looking to his right towards Davis and Battle. It looked like he was trying to hit an open Davis when he was tripped up by the defender (although he stayed on his feet) and Battle was well covered. Smith pulled it back and started to look left, but the pocket collapsed. The completed pass to Morgan was risky, but he threw it before Morgan was out of his break and trusted the receiver would get there and he did. On his incomplete throw to empty grass, it looked like the pass was intended for Spurlock and was possibly Spurlock’s fault for running the wrong route. Last was the touchdown throw, and many people thought he held on too long and couldn’t pull the trigger. But what he saw was two men open and a corner in between. Smith pump faked and hesitated because he was trying to get the corner to commit so he could throw to the other receiver.

I thought he did good minus a couple of miscues and most importantly, he didn’t turn the ball over. But hey, maybe I’m wrong. I would like to hear from other people what they saw.

The other 4, not so much

jk

Question: If Shaun Hill wins the QB job, can we say Smith is a bust?

/crosses fingers it will be Hill

Alex Smith is better than John Brodie, Joe Montana and Steve Young combined. I wish (Ute fan). We are all still waiting in Utah to see all that potential so we don’t have to call him the next Scott Mitchell. One more year Alex, one more year….. Go Niners!!!!

This is really do or die tomorrow. Nobody can ever say he didn’t get his fair shot. Starting tomorrow – no more excuses.

We play our next 3 games away from home. @ cowboys, @ Chargers, @ ARIZONA!! Lets see how our guys react after next weeks games. I know its preseason, but ANY one can have great games & practices vs the Broncos and Raiders, both at home.

whatever happens… i still have Hill over Smith to start Game 1.

1 – start Shaun Hill for the next year or two (where it would not be unrealistic to say we’d be competing in the playoffs)

2 – find another QB soon (either a developing Nate Davis, or another young guy in next year’s draft – there’s no reason we can’t find another great QB again)

3 – either (a) keep Smith for career backup role, or (b) let Smith work on realizing his “1st round potential” for 6-8 years on someone else’s team

You take a GM (Scot MC) and a Qb who just doesn’t have IT (alex) and you get the same situation that was in Chicago a few years back. Not letting the obvious be the obvious, A Smith was not worthy of a number one overall pick regardless of how weak the draft was. This Gm could possibly be giving him another shot and another and another so he doesn’t look like the IDIOT he feels like, but in reality he makes the organization look Stupid, Hill has earned the starting nod, and since a proven QB isn’t in competition with him, it should be his. Hopefully this is an attempt at reverse psychology at motivating Hill, I think confidence in his small body of work should be good enough.

First of all i think alex is the man and just because he had 2 rough years in the nfl and had some really serious injuries during that time alot of you are giving up on him, First of all lets just go back before the injurie. Alex was well on his way to becoming a franchise qb, his numbers went up the 06s season after we had norv turner as our offensive coordinator. Beating seattle on monday night football and frank gore believed and said after the game “hes ready and grown up” i mean i dont know how many of you guys watched the game but that qb in that game looked like the real starting niners qb, and in the beggining of the 07 season who can forget the monday night win against the cardinals won in the last second by a drive led by smith. And if i recall well thats something hill couldnt do, so i think you guys are being real harsh on a qb whos been out of this league basically since his injurie in 07, and you guys expect him to come out like a tom brady or a peyton manning?? i think he just needs time and practice i also agree with him not starting for now but once the first 3 games of the regular season start his number is gonna get called and im sure hes gonna answer to the calling. Dont get me wrong i like hill but to me his wins were all against bad or awful teams and i know they are still wins but once the season starts and we play a real team hes gonna be helpless.

In need of a statement game, the 49ers traveled to Seattle for a Thursday Night Football game against their division rivals. During the broadcast on NFL Network, Cris Collinsworth noted that were he starting an NFL franchise, he had take the Broncos rookie quarterback Jay Cutler before Alex Smith and fellow rookies Matt Leinart and Vince Young – and that Smith was not even close to the others.4 Going into the 4th quarter, the 49ers were trailing the Seahawks 7-3, and pulling out a win looked unlikely. Smith however performed brilliantly in the fourth quarter, and drove the 49ers on a long touchdown drive down the field early, taking a narrow 10-7 lead. Late in the quarter, with the same score, Smith struck again – shaking off an almost certain sack, rolling to the left and completing a pass to Frank Gore for a touchdown to give the 49ers a 10 point lead. On the next drive, Smith cemented the victory by leading yet another touchdown drive, and rushing for a touchdown on a naked bootleg. Collinsworth had earlier in the game observed that “Alex Smith is the best I’ve ever seen him. That drive is the best I saw,” and on seeing his touchdown run, commented that that was “What a second-half he has had!”.5

After losing to the Cardinals the following week, the 49ers final game of the 2006 season was against a Denver Broncos team looking for a playoff berth. In a major upset, the 49ers defeated the Broncos and knocked them out of the playoffs. During the game at INVESCO Field, Smith threw for 194 yards and a touchdown, leading the team to a come from behind victory for the second time in three weeks.

Overall, Smith improved in his second year by throwing as many touchdowns as interceptions. He threw for 16 TDs, 16 interceptions, 2,890 yards and a 74.8 quarterback rating, all improvements over his rookie year, and all well above what would normally be expected of a 22-year-old-quarterback.
Smith entered the 2007 season learning under a third offensive coordinator in three seasons. Norv Turner was hired as the head coach by the San Diego Chargers. Jim Hostler replaced Turner. Hostler’s system is a mixture of the offensive system installed by Turner with elements of the West Coast offense installed by Mike McCarthy for the 2005 season. During the offseason, the 49ers added wide receivers Darrell Jackson, Ashley Lelie, and rookie Jason Hill as new offensive weapons for Smith.

In the season opener on Monday Night Football against the Arizona Cardinals, Smith led the 49ers to a 20-17 win in a two-minute comeback. While down 17-13 with less than two-minutes left, Smith drove down the field, highlighted by a 25-yard scramble. After the scramble, he threw a 22 yard pass to Arnaz Battle that was fumbled on the one-yard line, but recovered by a 49er so the ball was placed back on the one-yard line with 26 seconds left. The following play Battle ran an end around for the game-winning touchdown. Smith finished the game 15 for 31 with 126 yards and two rushes for 37 yards.6 Had Darrell Jackson not dropped a perfectly thrown pass in the end zone prior to Smith completing the comeback, his numbers would have been even better.

On September 30 in the first quarter of a game against the Seattle Seahawks, Smith injured his right shoulder after getting sacked by Seahawks defensive tackle Rocky Bernard. Smith suffered a grade-three separation and the initial diagnosis was that surgery would not be required. Smith missed the next three games before returning to the 49ers’ starting lineup on Sunday, October 28, 2007.