A funny thing happens when your team is rumored to be interested in an aging, injured, but intriguing and exciting superstar. Fans go nuts. Facebook posts about dynasties, quiet grumblings about messing up the locker room chemistry. Everything gets culminated into a social media and communication frenzy of opinions flying in every direction. All of a sudden, your place in the fan universe goes from behind in a nice quiet, off-season resort area, to right smack dab in the middle of an asteroid field where objects are constantly buzzing right past your ear, shouting opinions as they fly by.
Welcome to my world.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the chaos of the offseason–it gives me something to do all day. As a writer, it gives me so many things that I could write paragraphs and paragraphs on. Every person shouting their opinions from the top of their Facebook page adds fuel to the fire.
Peyton Manning is elite. If this whole neck thing is not an issue (which is not even close to 100% certain), he makes the Broncos infinitely better at the QB position. In fact, it could be argued that the Broncos made the single greatest QB upgrade that any team has ever made in one offseason.
Manning Mania came rolling like a supernova blast through my sports universe a few days ago and it caught me off-guard. The 49ers were rumored to be interested, when all along everyone had assumed Alex Smith was destined to be back in order to continue the almost storybook coach-player relationship that he shared with Jim Harbaugh. After getting through the initial “WTF is happening” period, my thoughts were as follows:
This is good. If we get Manning, he instantly makes our offense better and potentially allows the 49ers to be able to cover for injuries and bad luck through the season. Last year, we had one major injury the entire year and a lot of our players had career years–expecting that to happen again is foolish and Manning allows us to cover ourselves if everything does not go our away again. If he signs and gets hurt, we have a pretty good plan B in Kaepernick who has had one year to digest the offensive system. If he signs somewhere else, we bring back Alex Smith and we continue on our merry way.
Now that Manning has moved on and Smith is flirting with Miami, a few things have become apparent:
1) It is in the 49ers best interest to re-sign Alex Smith.
This upsets the people who were banking on Manning coming here in order to set up a dynasty. Fine, its OK to be disappointed that the 49ers didn’t get a possibly elite QB, but Alex Smith is pretty damn good alternative. If anyone doesn’t think so, their eyes have been blinded by the bright future they envisioned with Manning. If you rewind your thoughts to before Manning ever became a possibility, having Smith come back on a 3 year deal would have seemed like a good option. It still is, nothing has changed from a football perspective. Fine, Smith’s feelings may have been hurt. So what? It’s still in his best interests to sign here too because it gives him the opportunity to start on a winning team.
2) Alex Smith, if he re-signs, will need to get better as a QB in order for the 49ers to repeat their success
Forget about Moss and Manningham. They matter, but they won’t dictate whether or not the 49ers can even replicate what they did last year. If Smith re-signs, he will need to get better as a QB. His progression as a passer will have nothing to do with the new weapons he will have on offense, but it will have everything to do with his understanding of the offense and his confidence level. QB’s make their WR’s better, but WR’s have very little impact on their QB’s. Yes, Stafford’s numbers look better because he can throw it up to Calvin Johnson, but CJ has no effect on Stafford’s talent. Alex Smith will need to be a better decision maker and be able to handle pressure in the pocket better in order to succeed if he comes back. The Smith supporters have pointed to a lack of offensive continuity as a reason for his floundering performance and Smith will have a chance to prove them right.
Speaking of Smith supporters, I’ve talked to and heard about a few people who are happy Manning didn’t choose to sign with the 49ers. Open your eyes. Manning > Smith and it’s not close. Everyone can yap about preserving the atmosphere in the locker room and highlighting our team-first mentality, but everything, i mean everything, in sports is secondary to winning. Winning cures all woes and anyone who argues that bringing in Manning would hurt the 49ers chances to win in 2012 simply does not get it. It’s all warm and cozy to talk about camaraderie and building a team the right way through the draft, but the truth is that the ultimate goal is to win and taking the bold move is necessary sometimes. It’s not like Manning is T.O.–we are talking about a proven leader and all-time great at his position.
All of this is mute if Smith chooses to sign with Miami. Then you can question the 49ers tactics to flirt with Manning, but Smith would be in the wrong in that scenario. His best opportunity still lies in SF and if he leaves the 49ers due to a bruised ego, it’s his fault. However, if the Dolphins offer more money and the 49ers are unwilling to match, you couldn’t fault him. But if the 49ers make a competitive offer, it would be idiotic for Smith to leave based on the 49ers pursuit of Manning. Even Smith must realize Manning would be an upgrade at the position and free agency is defined by the players right to talk to other teams AND the teams right to talk to other players. Check your ego and your feelings at the door please, this is what we call an open market.
In the end, emotions are hard to keep out of sports conversations. We all have biases and viewpoints that differ from others and a consensus is almost never possible. The overall point in this conversation should be that 49er fans have reason to be both worried about repeating their success from last year and ecstatic that they finally have a coach and a GM they can uniformly trust. And if Alex Smith comes back, we can have the same old conversation about whether he’s good enough. And if he doesn’t we move on with a plan C.
Yes, it would have been easier to just sign Smith and stay away from Manning, but I don’t want to to be a fan of a team that ignores the chance of an obvious upgrade at the most important position in football just out of fear of stepping on people’s toes. You shouldn’t want to be a fan of that kind of team either.
Jaymin














