It cracks me up when people say things like this, like getting a "franchise QB" is a given or it's so easy to do.
How will he cost a lot? If anything, his value has decreased. Especially if Kapernick leads the 49ers to a Superbowl appearance/win. He won't have as much leverage as you would think. Personally, I think we can do well with Alex Smith. You say Sanchez is worse than Smith. Sanchez has regressed, Alex Smith has not.
Ryan Fitzpatrick is better than Sanchez. What exactly do you see in Sanchez? he has NEVER had a good season up to this point. If I'm the 49ers or Seahawks you know they're gonna want SOMETHING for those afforementioned QB's. We can't afford to give up draft picks especially for Flynn who is an unknown. Smith may get cut plus Moore should be available.
As I am now writing for the third time . . . I do NOT want Alex Smith. My only point was, again, that Alex Smith is FAR less turnover prone than Mark Sanchez is. Now, I was only considering both quarterbacks and the entirety of their respective careers. When each player's career is taken as a whole, Alex Smith has proven to be FAR less turnover prone than Sanchez. However, just to be fair: Alex Smith committed 57 turnovers (43 ints, 14 fumbles) in his 1st 4 NFL seasons (2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009 - He didn't play in 2008) Mark Sanchez committed 89 turnovers (69 ints, 20 fumbles) in his 1st 4 NFL Seasons Now, you are correct that Sanchez accounted for more TDs: Alex Smith accounted for 39 Tds in his first 4 NFL seasons (37 passing, 2 rushing) Mark Sanchez accounted for 80 Tds in his first 4 NFL seasons (68 passing, 12 rushing) Edit: So, to conclude: Sanchez threw 31 more TDs but committed 26 more ints. Notice, that where Sanchez really stands out is his fumbes. He as an absurd amount of fumbles for a predominately pocket passer. And this trend only widens when we consider Smith"s last 4 seasons (seasons in which he reduced his turnovers, even further - the seasons I posted above). Once more, Sanchez makes more plays and but also makes more mistakes than Alex Smith. Hence, my point that they are very different players. I don't want either of them.
I don't know if there is a stat for "game-changing" turnovers but when you combine their INTs and fumbles per game played in their first 4 years, Smith turned the ball over at a higher rate than Sanchez. I posted the following in an older thread:
Flynn and Smith could probably both run the WCO, but I also think Sanchez can run it well. I really don't want either Flynn/Smith, not saying I want Sanchez either but I don't think we will cut him. Tebow, yes. but Sanchez willbe around for at least another year.
Nope. These stats don't wash. Read my post above. Alex Smith DID NOT play in 2008 (he was on the bench the ENTIRE season - his fourth season), and hence, you are looking at turnovers committed over THREE seasons, not four. Read my post above. Sanchez committed turnovers at a FAR HIGHER rate than Smith did, when comparing each of their FOUR full seasons played.
and btw, I agree that Sanchez was better than Smith, OVERALL (because he clearly made more plays), over the course of each of their first 4 seasons in the NFL.
I know he missed games that's why I did the comparison "per games played". Another fair approach would be to capture their cumulative stats through an equal amount of games (e.g., first 16, 32, 48 games). When I have the time or feel like it, I can do that. But anyway you slice it when you exclude the Harbaugh years, Smith and Nacho are pretty much the same guy.
Looking at the entirety of their careers, it's pretty clear to see that Sanchez has a significantly greater propensity for turning the ball over than Smith, but that he also makes more plays down the field. Either way, neither one of them is a franchise quarterback.
With our defense, is a franchise QB necessary? Wouldn't an above average one be what the doctor ordered?
I hate to continue to litigate this but my point is you can not look at the "entirety" of their careers as a basis of any comparison cause Smith turned a corner at the point where Sanchez is at now, after his 4th season. Pre-Harbaugh Smith is a completely different player than post-Harbaugh Smith. Who's to say MM doesn't have the same affect on Sanchez or Smith without Harbaugh reverts back to his old ways? The only thing we know for sure is up until this point of their respective careers they are eerily similar.
That's where I'm at; I'm not greedy. With our defense, 1 or 2 more productive offensive possessions a game could probably make us a playoff team.
Yes and No. I somewhat agree but I also think that Smith's improvement is fairly uncommon and not something to be expected or counted on. One thing that is particularly alarming about Sanchez is his failure to have a single season in which he completed 60% of his passes. By modern NFL standards, it is simply uncappectable and untenable for your franchise quarterback to be completing less than 60% of his passes. By comparison, in his fourth season (2009), Smith completed 60.5% of his passes, while in his fourth season Sanchez completed 54.9% of his passes. Another significant difference between Sanchez and Smith is that Sanchez has clearly regressed from his 2nd year to his 4th year (although, as I have argued many times before, he was never really any good), while Smith did just the opposite. Smith's 4th season was his "Breakout" year, relatively speaking. Also, it really isn't accurate at all to give Harbaugh the credit for Alex Smith's relative turnaround. Again, Smith's breakout year was 2009, two years before Harbaugh even got to SF. The funny thing though is that even with Smith's drastic improvement over the course of his career, he still remained the weakness of his team (and ultimately, he was benched this year because of it) and he has never been close to a franchise quarterback, IMO. And again, in response to the bolded: As I have outlined in this post and several before it, I simply do not agree.
Definitely. If we could somehow find a quarterback that could be ranked somewhere in the 12-15 range, we would be hella competitive. But the bottom line is that we need a competent NFL quarterback. We can't win playing around the quarterback position. We don't have an all-time great defense. It's good, and if Coples and Wilkerson turn into what I think they can be, it can be very good. But it's not great. We need our offense (and passing game, in particular) to become an asset for us, instead of an outright weakness and utter embarrassment.
Mark Sanchez vs. Alex Smith Training Camp battle would be ideal. Not sure how much Smith would cost though.
