All throughout the NFL nowadays we hear about certain quarterbacks just being game managers. They are not really capable of helping a team really win the game they are just helping them not lose a game. Nobody in today’s NFL fits the term game manager better than Alex Smith. Smith has been called out year after year for being just a game manager quarterback and year after year he seems to only improve his numbers and makes very smart throws. Two other quarterbacks in the NFL that were at one point in time known as just game managers are Tom Brady and Russell Wilson and they have 5 Super Bowl victories in between the two of them.
Now before everyone freaks out on me, I’m not saying Alex Smith will win 5 super bowls or even one. However, I think it is time that he starts to get a little recognition for being a game manager. A game manager is a quarterback who is on a good defensive team for starters. It would be very difficult for a team to have a game managing quarterback with a bad defense. This means that he realizes his role on the team and can accept that he is not the main focal point.
A game manager knows when to make the right throw and not to take too many chances. As much fun as it is to watch the gunslingers like Favre throw the ball around, they take a lot of risks and sometimes will pay for those risks because just like Favre did they will throw a lot of interceptions. It helps for a quarterback like Smith to have a good running back as well to hand the ball of too and with the Smith has had that between Frank Gore and Jamaal Charles for the most part. When you can hand the ball or throw a short drop off pass to a running back at Charles caliber you will be in pretty good shape.
Of course by checking down constantly to a running back or a Tight end you can end up with the nickname Captain Checkdown like Smith has been called. Now let’s look at his first two years in Kansas City to clear up this point. Would you rather throw a short dump off pass to Travis Kelce or Jamaal Charles or chuck the ball ten to fifteen yards to Dwayne Bowe or Donnie Avery? Think really hard about that one. Avery never can seem to stay healthy long enough to be on the field and the Cleveland Browns scratched a healthy Bowe several times in 2015 season. The 3-13 Cleveland Browns could not find a use for Dwayne Bowe this year, their best receiver is suspended all season and they relied heavily on a Tight End nobody had heard of until this year.
Alex Smith has put up three of his best seasons under Andy Reid and as long as Reid stays in Kansas City which the fact that he leads the Chiefs to their first playoff win in 22 years as well as having the longest win streak in team history with 11 wins in a row says that he could stay around for a little while. These two things plus a relatively young receiver in Jeremy Maclin along with a rookie receiver in Chris Conley tells me that the Chiefs might be a threat in the coming years as long as they can keep the nucleus of the team together and not run Reid out of town like Philly did. Watch out for KC in the next couple of NFL seasons they might not be the Chiefs people are used to seeing.
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