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After yet another tumultuous, disappointing season, nobody thought that former first overall selection Alex Smith would be back in San Francisco. After all, those following
NFL betting provided by BetUs recognized that Smith was a free agent and that the coaching staff had been overhauled. Surely the new staff wouldn’t be interested in bringing him back, right?
Well it appears that head coach Jim Harbaugh is serious about the subject and the front office has contacted his agent Tom Condon.
The bigger surpriae may be whether Smith might have interest in coming back to the 49ers.
The key here is that the
NFL may be heading to a lockout, which means offseason workouts will be shortened and free agency will be trimmed down significantly. What that means is that there will be very little time to prepare for the season, so keeping a player like Smith for the 2011 season offers some value as he is a veteran who is familiar with the personnel.
The 49ers currently only have one quarterback on the roster: David Carr. More importantly, nobody on the team or in the front office sees him as a future starter, so he’s basically a worst-case scenario option. He may even be worse than that.
So bringing Smith back might be the best option given that options are limited.
But would Smith even come back?
The former No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft is eager to test out free agency and truth be told, he probably feels heavily underappreciated by the 49ers. There aren’t many veteran quarterback options on the free agent market – especially ones as young as Smith – so he is likely to find a better offer from another team.
The fans have booed Smith at nauseum and that’s not likely to help. He probably would rather roll the dice in free agency than come back to a team that has grown frustrated with him.
But Smith faces a similar problem if there is a work stoppage. If he joins a new team in the middle of the summer, he’ll already be behind the incumbent quarterbacks. That will hinder his chances of starting anywhere else.
While most people assumed the Alex Smith Era was over in San Francisco, it continues to live on. Stay tuned.
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