Adam Schefter ? @AdamSchefter
Here's an interesting way to start your Sunday morning: 49ers free-agent QB Alex Smith is visiting today with the Miami Dolphins.

Not saying that we couldnt be interested if we don't get Flynn but this reeks Ireland creating leverage in his negotiations with Flynn. m Just letting him know he's not the only option.


Interesting discussion is whom would you prefer at this point:

Smith or Flynn?

1. Flynn
2. Smith

Cut Moore.

---------------------

"When you suck long enough, you get a Hickey"

WTF??????? Can they just sign Flynn???? Smith SUCKS 1 good year out of 7....Im so sick of Ireland and Ross is NO better they are BOTH clueless!!!!

Note to self.........don't ever play poker with Jeff Ireland!

prefer flynn. he will be cheaper and has more upside I think than smith.
if manning doesn't go to SF, Smith will resign with SF. If we truly want Flynn I hope we're not screwing this up by trying to get too cute

Smith actually may be the better prospect at this stage. I was really skeptical of his play last year...but, as I watched him make quick decisions and get rid of the ball to the right place on time...I actually came away impressed. Especially, the fact that he only threw 5 INT's all season.

Flynn had 5 INT's w/ 2 starts. This certainly is the main red flag at this stage of his development.

It definitely appears that the light bulbs have turned on for Alex Smith. The Phins are very wise to bring him in for a look.

What I think is becoming clear is that no one really sees Flynn as a sure franchise QB. Cleveland, who runs the same system the Packers do, didn't engage Flynn at all. The rumors out of Seattle were that they wanted Flynn to compete with Tarvaris Jackson. Clearly, if Miami believed Flynn was a franchise guy, and the contract demands were reasonable, he'd have been a Dolphin yesterday. By all accounts, Flynn wants to play in Miami. So, why isn't this a done deal yet? Most likely, the Fins value of him is less than what he and his agent had hoped for. What does that mean? It could mean that they have no doubt that Flynn could come in and run this offense the way it is supposed to be run. But, they do have doubts about his ceiling, and if he can be a guy that takes it to another level. And hence, here you have Alex Smith.

With Smith, there are no questions about his size or arm strength. And there are no concerns about his lack of experience and knowing how to make week to week adjustments. And that performance against New Orleans was pretty impressive.

With Smith's early career struggles, what gets lost is that he has actually been pretty good for 3 years. Over the last 3 years, he's averaged over 60% completions, with 49 TD and 27 INT. 2011 was clearly the best year (and it happened to be in a West Coast Offense), but he first turned the corner in 2009. And in spite of his longer career, he is only 1 year older than Matt Flynn.

What connections to Smith are there? Smith's rookie season was with Mike McCarthy as OC. So the first NFL system he learned was the one that Philbin is schooled in. The 49ers went away from that system in 2006, but then brought it back in 2007. So, there's 2 years for Smith in that system. And in 2011, Jim Harbaugh brought the WCO back to San Fran.

When you look at Smith's career, you realize that he has been handled pretty crazily. He played in a spread offense in college, and then was forced into a WCO in the NFL. After a year, they went to Norv Turner's offense. The next year, they used a combination of Turner's system and McCarthy's system. The year after that, they went with a Mike Martz offense. The year after that, it was the Coryell offense. After two years with that, it was a West Coast Offense again. In 7 years in the league, Smith has played for 6 different offensive coordinators, all with different systems. That, my friends, is textbook on how not to develop a QB.

Count me in the camp as someone who would prefer Smith over Flynn. He has more tools, and he has more experience.

I'd prefer Flynn because of his familiarity with our system and coaches. However, Smith has had to learn a new system almost every season so it's no wonder he has not lived up to his potential. What he did last season however was play really well.

He'd be a good pick up for us if Flynn falls through...either way though I'd personally draft a rookie this season. (Tannehill)

Yeah, this should be a clear sign to Flynn and his agents that he's not as hot as they think he is. I know some on this board will spin this as cluelessness on Irelands part, but I think It's a good sign he's not overpaying out of desperation.

MattyG69 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WTF??????? Can they just sign Flynn???? Smith
> SUCKS 1 good year out of 7....Im so sick of
> Ireland and Ross is NO better they are BOTH
> clueless!!!!


If Smith was so good, why would SF want him out for an over the hill Peyton Manning...what's his contract...27 million out there in San Fran...

That would be what we just saved with Brandon Marshall over the next three years... is he that quality????

What's going to happen here is that Flynn will sign with Seattle today, if they let him start, Denver will sign Manning, and Smith will get on a plane and go back to San Fran.

Or San Fran will sign Manning, Smith will go to Cleveland (who has way more cap space than us), and even if Seattle doesn't want Flynn to start without competing, I know someone then who will....

John Elway...

Then guess who's homeless and coming here:

Any guesses?????

Smith probably got word and called Bernie last night to get a feel for the situation in Cleveland....

Anyone think about that...

dolfanmark Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What I think is becoming clear is that no one
> really sees Flynn as a sure franchise QB.
> Cleveland, who runs the same system the Packers
> do, didn't engage Flynn at all. The rumors out of
> Seattle were that they wanted Flynn to compete
> with Tarvaris Jackson. Clearly, if Miami believed
> Flynn was a franchise guy, and the contract
> demands were reasonable, he'd have been a Dolphin
> yesterday. By all accounts, Flynn wants to play in
> Miami. So, why isn't this a done deal yet? Most
> likely, the Fins value of him is less than what he
> and his agent had hoped for. What does that mean?
> It could mean that they have no doubt that Flynn
> could come in and run this offense the way it is
> supposed to be run. But, they do have doubts about
> his ceiling, and if he can be a guy that takes it
> to another level. And hence, here you have Alex
> Smith.
>
> With Smith, there are no questions about his size
> or arm strength. And there are no concerns about
> his lack of experience and knowing how to make
> week to week adjustments. And that performance
> against New Orleans was pretty impressive.
>
> With Smith's early career struggles, what gets
> lost is that he has actually been pretty good for
> 3 years. Over the last 3 years, he's averaged over
> 60% completions, with 49 TD and 27 INT. 2011 was
> clearly the best year (and it happened to be in a
> West Coast Offense), but he first turned the
> corner in 2009. And in spite of his longer career,
> he is only 1 year older than Matt Flynn.
>
> What connections to Smith are there? Smith's
> rookie season was with Mike McCarthy as OC. So the
> first NFL system he learned was the one that
> Philbin is schooled in. The 49ers went away from
> that system in 2006, but then brought it back in
> 2007. So, there's 2 years for Smith in that
> system. And in 2011, Jim Harbaugh brought the WCO
> back to San Fran.
>
> When you look at Smith's career, you realize that
> he has been handled pretty crazily. He played in a
> spread offense in college, and then was forced
> into a WCO in the NFL. After a year, they went to
> Norv Turner's offense. The next year, they used a
> combination of Turner's system and McCarthy's
> system. The year after that, they went with a Mike
> Martz offense. The year after that, it was the
> Coryell offense. After two years with that, it was
> a West Coast Offense again. In 7 years in the
> league, Smith has played for 6 different offensive
> coordinators, all with different systems. That, my
> friends, is textbook on how not to develop a QB.
>
> Count me in the camp as someone who would prefer
> Smith over Flynn. He has more tools, and he has
> more experience.

Ever think that maybe the reason he's played for 6 different offensive corrdinators and has been shuffled around the league is because he was really not that good in any of them????

SMITH is leverage to drive down the cost of FLYNN...

I'm pretty skeptical of Ireland, but you gotta admit, he did a good job of driving down the price of Soliai. Let's see how this plays out.

I honestly don't think Smith is strictly here to drive down Flynns price, if Philbin was completely sold on Flynn he'd be signed by now.

TOM CONDON has got his fingers in so many pies...SMith should fire his ass. Tim Tebow too!

dolphaholic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Note to self.........don't ever play poker with
> Jeff Ireland!

Let's see what we end up with before we start talking about how well Ireland has played this

berkeley223 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Let's see what we end up with before we start
> talking about how well Ireland has played this


Or how badly.

You have to let things play out. There's a lot more going on in these negotiations than we are aware of at this point.

Next up...David Garrard...

Leverage.....probably.

But also for Smith, who may get displaced in SF by Manning.

I'm here SF Bay area, have seen/heard all the Smith saga.
Top pick, came with unreasonably high expectations (Manning-esque).
Suffered from bad coaching, bad OL, bad WR.
However, he had a serious case of Henne-stank, until last year.

Is he "better" than Flynn in 2012, probably.
2013, maybe.

Another however, Smith left a $24M, 3 year contract unsigned from the SF 49ers.......which, in my belief, opened the door to the Manning to SF.

SOOOOO $25-$30M for Smith for 3 years.....too rich for me.

Not saying he is doing anything well.......but just trying to figure the Fer out!

OPM means "Other People's Money."

OPL means "Other People's Leftovers."

OPC menas "Other People's Castoffs."

Is Matt Moore really that bad? Go back and look at the scores this season.

If you can get an RGIII, yeah, go for it!

But it is a big step down to go for Flynn and would be an even bigger step down to go for Alex Smith. San Francisco has been piss poor until this year.

Other than Vernon Davis, Smith has had no weapons. Just know they start signing WR's

I love how people think Matt Flynn is a step above Alex Smith. Matt Flynn, who has started two career games. Matt Flynn, who has started 16 football games in the last 8 years. Matt Flynn, who has never had to be the starter week in and week out, with defenses gameplanning for him and attacking his weaknesses. Everyone raves about Flynn's two starts, including how he almost beat the Patriots. Yes, a Patriots team that had nothing to play for in the game. And he almost beat them. He threw an INT at the end of the game when he had a chance to pull out the win. Flynn was a 7th round draft pick for reasons. Meanwhile, Alex Smith almost took a team with very little WR talent to a Super Bowl last year.

This is like in fantasy baseball, when guys jump all over midseason call-ups. Why? Because they haven't had an opportunity to fail yet, so they seen "shinier" than guys you've heard of.

On Sirius NFL Radio this week, Rich Gannon, Jim Miller, and Kurt Warner all said they are not sold on Flynn as a legit starter in the league. I will be ok with a Flynn signing. It's worth a shot. But, the track record for rewarding backups with almost no playing time is not good. If Matt Hasselbeck and Matt Schaub are the gold standard for this, I'm not impressed. And they both had a stronger college pedigree than Flynn. Someone please put together a list of all the guys who were 1 year starters in college, then were a late round draft pick, and then led their NFL team to a Super Bowl.

To be fair, Flynn was "stuck" behind Favre and Rodgers. Where was his opportunity to start or even to get reps with the first team offense? Most of us that were high on Flynn coming here clearly stated that it was contingent upon Philbin's view of him and of course the price tag.
Manning is finally out of the picture for us and out of nowhere Smith enters the market from Miami's perspective. Certainly, for the same price tag, Smith is the better risk but, unless Manning signs with SanFran, Smith might not be realistically available.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I would take Smith in a heartbeat over Flynn. The guy jus qb'd the 49'rs to the NFC championship. 5Tds 0 ints inthe playoffs. You really have to be a screwbball to want Flynn.

Please hold a popgun to Smith's hand and make him sign on the dotted line.

I don't think we'll get Smith.

He's priced himself out of our market when he turned down $8+m a year for 3 years from SF.

I think we'll sign an insurance policy like Garrard and draft a guy like Wheedon or Osweiler.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2012 02:08PM by THE Truth.