Who is Alex Smith!

GM! Coach!! Quarterback!!!

So our beloved chiefs have just replaced the three most important pieces of  the franchise.....now what. We get to wait another 5 months for that first glimpse of  a new era of chiefs football.

Is this Pioli, Haley, and Cassell part two, or have we found the three men who will lead our chiefs back to gridiron glory?  Obviously nobody knows, but I'm going to do my best to shine some light on what we have to look forward to, starting with Alex Smith.

Most sports fans know Smith's story. After being selected with the number one overall pick in the 2005 draft he played for 6 different offensive coordinators in 6 years, was benched multiple times, lost most of a season to a broken bone in his shoulder, was labeled a bust, booed by his own fans, and took a massive pay cut before finally emerging to lead the 49ers to the nfc championship game with a dramatic comebackvideo link following the 2011 season.

Finally it seemed like Smith had fulfilled his potential. Midway through the 2012 season he was leading the NFL in quarterback rating and coming off the best game of his career in which he completed all but one of his pass attempts when he suffered a concussion and never got his job back.  After finally seeing some success after seven years of struggles, and the being benched Smith could have easily complained or sulked, but instead he was the ultimate professional and did everything he could to mentor the man who took his job.

Leadership, character, resiliency. Check.  Obviously Alex Smith has the intangible qualities to lead a team.

So what? Matt Cassell had many of those qualities. The real question is can he lead our Kansas City Chiefs to the their first playoff victory since 1993.  Lets take a look at Alex Smith by the numbers.

40, 74, 57, 82, 84, 90, 104.

Those are Alex Smith's quarterback ratings for the last seven years. Notice a trend?

49ers franchise records

• Most game winning drives in a single season: 6 (2011)
• Most 4th quarter comeback wins in a single season: 6 (2011)^[61]
• Fewest interceptions in a single season: 5 in 2011 (16 starts) ^[61]
• Most consecutive pass attempts without an interception: 249 (previous record: 184, by Steve Young)

Holding any passer rating for a franchise with the quarterback pedigree of the 49er's is impressive.He is also the only quarterback in NFL history to lead two fourth quarter comebacks in the same playoff game.

Here are Smith's numbers over his last 32 games(two full seasons)

• 548 of 883 for 6,517 yards, 62.06%
• 43 TDs, 4.87 TD%
• 11 INTs, 1.25 INT%
• 7.38 Y/A, 7.79 AY/A

 That adds up to a qb rating of 99.5.  Over the last five seasons, 55 teams had quarterbacks finish with a rating of 90 or better, and 52 of those teams finished at .500 or better, with the three exceptions being the 2008 Packers, 2010 Texans, and last year's Saints. So can if Alex Smith comes close to matching his production from the last two seasons in a different situation? I don't know, but if he does Kansas City is likely to be a playoff team.

More on Alex Smith:

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