Replacing Smith with Kapernik: How Bold Coaching was That?

I agree with everything that you wrote, except the very end. Nearly all the coaches in the league, imo, would have waited until the off-season and the OTAs to increase the emphasis on the Pistol as Harbaugh has done and install Kaepernick as the starting QB. I really cannot think of another coach in the league that would have switched QBs in midstream as Harbaugh had done, given that the playoffs were on the line at the time as well as the expectations in the 49ers organization that this was a Super Bowl team. The expectations were extremely high for the team at the time of the change. It was a huge risk that Harbaugh took, imo, and it worked.

I see a lot of pooh-poohing of Alex Smith as a QB on this board. Frankly, this pooh-poohing is borne from ignorance of not watching the 49ers on a regular basis. Smith's 104.7 QB rating was no fluke. The guy is a very good, maybe not great, but very good NFL QB at this point in his career. If he goes to, say, the Arizona Cardinals next season, he will make them a much better team. I wouldn't be surprised to see three NFC West teams make the playoffs next season if Alex joins the Cardinals, which is what I suspect will occur.



If he's so good and so very great, he wouldn't have got benched. Take away that amazing defense, and he is 8-8 at best or worse like the Niners were before Harbaugh even came there. At this point Kaepernick is the better QB, and the man in that town. Alex Smith was a game manager. he did just enough to win the game, and Harbaugh limited him to the point he wasn't making big game changing turnovers like he did in the years before. With Kaepernick he don't have that problem, that kid is light years better than Smith. I watched enough of the Niners games to know this. After that beat down the Giants gave them, it was time to bench Alex. He played very poorly in that game, and that was just it. Look at the points they were scoring before and after. With Smith they relied very heavily on field goals to win games. With Kaepernick they were scoring touchdowns.


Watch him go to Arizona and be the same old Alex we know from his past. The Cardinals are not making the playoffs. The Rams will make it before them. Everyone constantly doubts that Rams team but they are 1-0-1 against the Niners, and I'd actually take them over the Seahawks. They have tons of draft picks for the next few years thanks to Synder in Washington blowing them on RGIII, and Jeff Fisher no longer has a crazy owner like Bud Adams shoving Vince Young down his throat. The Cardinals are going to continue to be the bottom feeder in that division since they fired Whisenhunt, watch that defense regress big time now that he is out the picture.