Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson said this week that he believes he has the best starting quarterback in the NFL.
No, the Chiefs have not made an under-the-radar-trade to acquire Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, or Tom Brady. They still have Alex Smith, who Kansas City gave up quite a bit to get. But when a team has the No.1 draft pick, things likely did not go right the season prior.
Smith landed in Kansas City in the offseason, coming from San Francisco where he lost his starting role to Colin Kaepernick. That’s plenty fine with Pederson though.
“Ultimately, every team has to have a quarterback,” Pederson said in a recent interview. “I think we have the best in the league.”
Smith was actually having a good year in 2012 with the 49ers before he was injured… enter Colin Kaepernick.
Simply too electric to bench, Kaepernick ultimately led the 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII. The end result was Smith departing for Kansas City from San Francisco and the team that drafted him first overall in the 2005 NFL Draft.
Smith completed 70 percent of his passes last season for 1,737 yards to go along with 13 touchdowns and just five interceptions in nine games in 2012. Put those numbers up to his career in which he is completing 59 percent of his throws, with 81 touchdowns to 63 interceptions and you can see the difference.
The Alex Smith from 2012 showing up in Kansas City will definitely be an improvement for the Chiefs but as far as the best in the league… well, let’s not get carried away.