NFL offseason thread

The Niners could have afforded to keep Smith. It certainly doesn't hurt that Kaepernick is still on his rookie contract and can't re-negotiate for another season or two...

Would they have kept him? Of course not, but Smith had a relatively reasonable price tag ($8.5 mil) which also didn't hurt his trade value. It's not like KC had to trade for him and then give him a monster new deal, although it wouldn't surprise me if he gets an extension within the next year.

Smith was by far the best QB available. He also should fit pretty well into Reid's offense.

I'd love to know what other offers SF had for Smith. There were reports that the Cardinals were interested. If that was true, KC made sure it got him. They might have overpaid, but they got their guy.

 

Maybe it doesn't make sense to you. But what if another team was going to give the 49ers a second-round pick? That would not be far-fetched at all. For all we know, the 49ers were talking to some team about the 46th pick and a third-rounder next year and that caused the Chiefs to jump.

You're making a ridiculous declaration. Not unlike people who say "they should have traded the No. 1 pick!" in years where it's clear that there is no taker for the No. 1 pick.

 

If anyone were even close, they wouldn't have announced it so quickly. They would have kept negotiating. They already accepted because they were blown away.

 

You're just one big ball of assumptions as facts.

It's equally likely that the 49ers were shopping around against the Chiefs' offer during the few days when their trade partner was unidentified, and the Chiefs -- maybe they upped their offer in response, maybe they didn't, but they said they were going to announce it and get the 49ers on record now or they were going to pull out.

I'm not saying that definitely happened, but it's very plausible. You have no idea what the machinations were around the league.

 

So, following up the mistake they made on Cassel with another similar one.

 

You're right. I am assuming. But the facts show they paid a bunch for a quarterback who wasn't starting on his own team and has a decent (not great) track record. I'm comfortable assuming no other club would have come close to that offer.

 

I find it amusing that everyone is talking about how Cassel was a one-season wonder because of the Belichek system without noticing that Smith was a complete bust until he joined up with Harbaugh.

 

I find it amusing that you actually believe people haven't been noticing that about Smith.

 

Those facts are correct. So are these: He wasn't going to start in San Francisco, and they weren't going to pay him to hold a clipboard, so a trade was inevitable. And even with all his warts, he is a significant upgrade for about a half-dozen (probably more) teams who are desperate to find a quarterback with a pulse. Everybody in the NFL knew that. And the Chiefs knew if they tried to go into this season with either Cassel/Quinn, or an unproven QB they panicked and reached for in the draft, the reaction of the fans would have been beyond ugly from the first day.

You can assume no other team would have come close to that offer. But it's not outrageous to assume as the draft drew nearer, that it would have turned into a bidding war that could have made what the Chiefs gave up look like a bargain.

 

OK, I don't read that much off-season, but everyone I've heard / read has been saying he's a solid if unspectacular B+ & the only problem is that they overpayed

 

The team that gets a player in a trade by definition made the offer considered best by the other team in the trade. But if you want a guy, you always want to make a preemptively best offer to prevent multibid situations, as noted above. Reid has reason to believe he can get production out of Smith. I don't think my old pal Romeo thought that, or at least he shouldn't have, nor should've Mike Singletary. A second and a third round pick will look like a cheap price if Smith continues to play well, and it will be.

 

I don't think the Chiefs overpaid, because I fall into the camp that says Harbaugh taught Smith enough that he can take elsewhere. (The other camp being the one that says Smith was merely Harbaugh's remote-controlled robot and will do nothing without him. I could see that happening too. Will be interesting.)

But if you are going to "overpay," quarterback is the one place to do it. If you don't have one, you're fucked until you do. It's worth the risk.