Now that we have reports of an Alex Smith trade "effectively complete", we are now left to figure out who that team is. Part of that process will come from the process of eliminating other teams. Although we have to take every piece of news and information at face value, there is a pretty good chance we can remove the Jacksonville Jaguars from the equation:
#jaguars GM Dave Caldwell says via text "not us" who has deal in place for SF QB Alex Smith.
— Ryan O'Halloran (@ryanohalloran) February 24, 2013
This is not exactly shocking. The Jaguars have indicated they want to build from the ground up through the draft, and also potentially give Blaine Gabbert one chance to prove himself to the new front office and coaching staff. If those two things are true, the Jaguars make little sense as a destination for Alex Smith. It is not impossible, but it seems unlikely.
All the speculation is focused on the Kansas City Chiefs at the moment. We can roll with a little "where there's smoke, there's fire" and focus on the Chiefs, but we could be surprised. The 49ers front office has surprised us in the past, and maybe that happens again with this trade.
As for what the 49ers got? Well, the team has 14 picks in this year's draft. That does not preclude adding picks, but if they are getting any 2013 picks, you have to think they'll be sending one or more 2013 picks the other way. The team could very well just want to continue stockpiling 2013 picks, but if they are not unloading any picks in this deal, then a 2014 pick makes more sense. A lot of that will depend in part on what the 49ers want to do in the 2013 draft. Do they want to try and move up in an earlier round? If so, adding one or two day two picks makes sense, and in fact, might tip their hand a little bit as we head toward April.
For now, we are left to wait and wonder. The Twitter-sphere will be abuzz for the next two weeks while we sit and wait. I'm sure we'll see plenty of rumors and "reports" as March 12 nears.