During a “Dwight Clark Legacy Series” event — a charity event benefitting The Golden Heart Fund of San Francisco — former Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith appeared on a panel with three other quarterbacks who have also been associated with the San Francisco 49ers: Brock Purdy, Jeff Garcia and Steve Young.
Smith spoke about the unique situation in which he found himself the 49ers had selected him out of Utah with the first overall pick of the 2005 NFL Draft: following Joe Montana, Young — and even Driskell — as San Francisco’s starter.
“There had never been a franchise to have a Joe and Steve,” Smith explained, per NBC Sports. “Like, that had never happened. Jeff set the franchise record for yards, so he had carried it on.
“And all of a sudden to be the No. 1 pick — and as a 20 year old — those were things I never dealt with. I had one college scholarship offer. I had been flying under the radar my entire life. Now, all of a sudden. [there were] huge expectations put upon me.”
Smith now realizes it was almost an impossible situation.
“It was a lot<“ he recalled. “I felt like I had to be perfect. I struggled with that my first few years, walking onto a field on eggshells. Trying not to make any mistakes. I got to be perfect, it was every day at practice, in the meeting rooms, kind of became my own worst enemy.
“As anybody can imagine, you try to do anything let alone play quarterback as a rookie, that’s certainly a recipe for disaster.”
It also didn’t help that Smith was frequently injured during his early years with the 49ers. He missed games in both 2005 and 2007 — and then after being replaced by Shaun Smith as the starter during 2008’s training camp, he was placed on injured reserve when it was learned that a wire placed in his shoulder to repair his 2007 shoulder injury had cut through the bone.
Smith had to take a pay cut to return to the team in 2009 — and eventually led the 49ers to a 13-3 record in 2011, when San Francisco lost to the New York Giants in the NFC Championship. But despite this, when he suffered a concussion during the 2012 season, second-year quarterback Colin Kaepernick remained the starter after Smith was cleared to play again.
After the 49ers went on to the Super Bowl with Kaepernick — where they lost to the Baltimore Ravens — San Francisco felt comfortable trading Smith to the Chiefs, where he served as the team’s starting quarterback during the first five years of head coach Andy Reid’s tenure.
In the last of these seasons under Reid — with first-round pick Patrick Mahomes waiting in the wings — Smith finally learned to say “f-ck it” on the field. This helped him turn in the best season of his career before Kansas City traded him to the Washington Commanders.
