MELLINGER: Should The Chiefs Move On From Smith?

[OnTheWarpath15]

Yep, another Alex Smith thread - but a solid and fair read from Sam Mellinger.

The only way forward is through brutal honesty and realistic self-evaluation. No sport moves as quickly, or with such little empathy, as the NFL.

Only fools assume what happened in the past will continue to happen in the future, unless that assumption is “the Patriots will win every year from now until armageddon because Bill Belichick is an alien.”

And so it is that this particular group of Chiefs players and executives attempt to solve a puzzle that no group of Chiefs players and executives has solved since 1970, which is so long ago CBS erased the tape to save money:

Get to the Super Bowl.

And it’s hard to believe that will happen without addressing the quarterback situation.

This is not a call for the Chiefs to walk away from Alex Smith, even though this is the first offseason since his arrival in which they could do it without a fatal salary cap hit. This is a call for them to look, to try, to make sure they don’t have access to a better option — whether that’s Tony Romo in a trade, Deshaun Watson in the draft (which would almost certainly require a trade up), or anything else.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt...#storylink=cpy

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Snica

But this is how the Chiefs always do it. Go get a retread and never address the future. When said retread is done or failed, we just go get another retread.

Rinse. Repeat.

Only 2.5 retreads have worked out. Lenny got us to two superbowls and one championship. Joe Montana got us to the AFC championship game. Trent is the .5 because he had the offense rolling but Dick was an ass and ignored the defense.

Pretty much.

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by Rausch

And Dak was a ****ing rookie.

Does anyone really think Alex's skills and athletic ability will increase after 33?...

Well tiger bob obviously does.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

Well tiger bob obviously does.

Well, he's a fool...

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by Rausch

Well, he's a fool...

You got that right

[wutamess]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Spoiler!

This guy on my fb feed that's a football coach for a college says that Hill was supposed to run a corner route and that the Saftey squatting means The other safety was to have coverage over top of Hill.

I get the concept but I told him that if that was Roth and Antonio Brown, there's no way Roth wouldn't have loved that matchup and let it fly. Dude basically said A. Smith did right. We respectfully agreed to disagree on so many levels.

1st. it's a fake WR screen. Both players were open on that side. Hill is Smiths #2 read and all players had bit the screen. Smith then bails out of the pocket prematurely (as he always does) and then when he scrambles he doesn't keep his eyes down field. smh all around.

[DJ's left nut]

You can see the other safety spying Hill, I'll grant you. I hadn't looked at him that closely. That said, he (probably Mitchell?) is also trying to squat on Harris on the underneath route and there's no way he has the closing speed to cover that much ground.

Smith should've thrown it out there and let his guy get it; it's the kind of play that a quarterback who purports to "get the ball to his playmakers and let them make plays" would've made.

I see a brilliantly designed play that froze coverage and left the deep threat looking at 20 yards of open pasture....blown up by a QB that wouldn't let him go get it.

[wutamess]

That was his argument... However... the squatting safety underneath, you have to know that any WR against a squatting safety, when they're even, they're leaving. ESPECIALLY with Tyreek! The spy was no where NEAR over the top in coverage.

Gotta let it fly.
Foles would have.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by wutamess

That was his argument... However... the squatting safety underneath, you have to know that any WR against a squatting safety, when they're even, they're leaving. ESPECIALLY with Tyreek! The spy was no where NEAR over the top in coverage.

Gotta let it fly.
Foles would have.

He might have been right had Mitchell not taken his eyes off Hill and turned to Harris.

If Mitchell's baiting that throw, he might have been able to get over there (and I emphasize might; Mitchell isn't a burner by any stretch and Hill had a lot of space). But once he turned his head to look at Harris, Smith had him dead to rights.

Besides, if Smith still throws the corner route and puts a little loft under it towards the sideline, there's no reason that Hill couldn't have adjusted to the throw. As I noted when grudgingly giving that piece of human feces credit, he's a shockingly instinctive WR. His ability to adjust to throws and throw little nuances into his routes has shocked the hell out of me.

Gotta give him a shot there, you just have to.

[wutamess]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

He might have been right had Mitchell not taken his eyes off Hill and turned to Harris.

If Mitchell's baiting that throw, he might have been able to get over there (and I emphasize might; Mitchell isn't a burner by any stretch and Hill had a lot of space). But once he turned his head to look at Harris, Smith had him dead to rights.

Besides, if Smith still throws the corner route and puts a little loft under it towards the sideline, there's no reason that Hill couldn't have adjusted to the throw. As I noted when grudgingly giving that piece of human feces credit, he's a shockingly instinctive WR. His ability to adjust to throws and throw little nuances into his routes has shocked the hell out of me.

Gotta give him a shot there, you just have to.

But the entire time... Mitchell's hips never open and he's in squat position against The fastest player in the NFL. No WAY he gets anywhere close to a ball that leads TH even if the throw starts BEFORE he gets to the first squatting safety.

But yeah. Smith bails out when there's no pressure anyways AND misses the RB coming open on the back side. Bring on Foles. win or lose we're not going to win the big one with Smith so we're wasting our time.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by wutamess

This guy on my fb feed that's a football coach for a college says that Hill was supposed to run a corner route and that the Saftey squatting means The other safety was to have coverage over top of Hill.

I get the concept but I told him that if that was Roth and Antonio Brown, there's no way Roth wouldn't have loved that matchup and let it fly. Dude basically said A. Smith did right. We respectfully agreed to disagree on so many levels.

1st. it's a fake WR screen. Both players were open on that side. Hill is Smiths #2 read and all players had bit the screen. Smith then bails out of the pocket prematurely (as he always does) and then when he scrambles he doesn't keep his eyes down field. smh all around.

There is no ****ing way that the Safety even if he turns catches Hill. There is no way a safety is going to keep up with Hill in a straight sprint like that. None.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by kcxiv

There is no ****ing way that the Safety even if he turns catches Hill. There is no way a safety is going to keep up with Hill in a straight sprint like that. None.

Ugh....everytime I watch that play I try to talk myself out of hating it and can't.

I was going to respond "yeah, but by the time Hill pulls even, Smith has to put that ball 60 yards in the air to keep Hill from outrunning it, which even premier QBs would struggle with there, so maybe since the throw would've been a bit late and over the middle, an extreme no-no, he chose to fight another day"

Then I watched it again and realized he could've put the ball about 35 yards downfield from the moment Hill pulled even with Davis (and Smith was still looking over there) and Hill would've easily pulled under it without having to slow up. 35 yards in the air isn't asking too much of anyone. Hill found space so quickly that it's just an easy pitch and catch.

Again, Smith just blew it. He just absolutely blew it.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Ugh....everytime I watch that play I try to talk myself out of hating it and can't.

I was going to respond "yeah, but by the time Hill pulls even, Smith has to put that ball 60 yards in the air to keep Hill from outrunning it, which even premier QBs would struggle with there, so maybe since the throw would've been a bit late and over the middle, an extreme no-no, he chose to fight another day"

Then I watched it again and realized he could've put the ball about 35 yards downfield from the moment Hill pulled even with Davis (and Smith was still looking over there) and Hill would've easily pulled under it without having to slow up. 35 yards in the air isn't asking too much of anyone. Hill found space so quickly that it's just an easy pitch and catch.

Again, Smith just blew it. He just absolutely blew it.

And it's not like that was the only thing that he blew in that game. If that was it....I'd be prone to find something else to blame but then you add the two horrible throws to Ware.....and the missed opportunities to Conley and Hill....and **** man. And that's not even taking into consideration the delay of game and waste of a timeout.

[O.city]

When smith puts his back foot down, all he had to do was throe it to the 50 and it's a td. Mitchell isn't gonna outrun him or have the angle.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

He might have been right had Mitchell not taken his eyes off Hill and turned to Harris.

If Mitchell's baiting that throw, he might have been able to get over there (and I emphasize might; Mitchell isn't a burner by any stretch and Hill had a lot of space). But once he turned his head to look at Harris, Smith had him dead to rights.

Besides, if Smith still throws the corner route and puts a little loft under it towards the sideline, there's no reason that Hill couldn't have adjusted to the throw. As I noted when grudgingly giving that piece of human feces credit, he's a shockingly instinctive WR. His ability to adjust to throws and throw little nuances into his routes has shocked the hell out of me.

Gotta give him a shot there, you just have to.

The point missing in this I brought up earlier, what is the effect if Reid flat tells Tyreek 'you're the decoy?'

What does Alex think of Tyreek's ability to read that he's not the decoy, but the target. What IS Tyreek's ability to make that switch?

The scheme sent in from the sidelines freed up the RB on a fly pattern even more uncovered than Tyreek, . . . that developed too late with the DE closing in on Alex too fast. Otherwise it was a great scheme.

It's the age old dilemma of the goat standing in the exact middle between to ponds. He dies of thirst because he can't decide which pond is preferable to go drink from.

[SAUTO]

There's no defending that play. He missed multiple open guys and bailed out of the pocket way too early.