Would Alex Smith sign Andy Dalton's contract? 'It's a very different situation for me'

News broke of Andy Dalton's new contract during a Kansas City Chiefs practice last week, and it happened on the day that Alex Smith was talking to the Kansas City media. So after practice, Alex walks up to the media and I said to him, "You probably know what the first question will be. Dalton signed a new deal. Does this affect your deal for comparison purposes?" He said it really doesn't.

That wasn't the best question I could've asked though. Tom Pelissero of USA Today deserves credit for this excellent question to Alex in a Q&A for USA Today. You should read the whole thing but here's a snippet:

Q: If the Chiefs put Andy Dalton's contract in front of you today, would you sign it?

Smith: "We're on the record. That's a tough question. Certainly, I think it's a tough thing. I look at both Andy and Kap and they're both on their rookie deals. They're both second-round picks in the new rookie wage scale, so what were their salaries? It's a very different situation for me. This whole new rookie wage scale, with these young guys getting re-upped, it's kind of a different element, because they're in a far different situation than the guys used to be. If you were an early pick, it used to be your contract was top-tier anyway. It's different to kind of mix the two."

That feels like a no. It's a very different situation for Alex in that he has made money in his career. He was making $7.5 million last season, which isn't much compared to other quarterbacks. But it is a lot compared to second round rookie contracts like Colin Kaepernick and Andy Dalton. The advantage to the contracts Kap and Dalton signed is that they get a lot of money this year when they weren't scheduled to get a lot of money this year. As 610 Sports Danny Parkins pointed out the other day, people can crap on the Kap and Dalton pay-as-you-go deals all they want but the bottom line is that Kap and Dalton making millions upon millions more this year more than they were. Alex probably doesn't need that immediate financial security having been the No. 1 pick and all. In negotiations, that's key.

It seems like what's important to Alex, besides money, is how the deal is structured. He wants security in Kansas City. The pay-as-you-go type of deals (yes, I'm simplifying it quite a bit) don't have as much security as it appears. That's what I take away from this.

The entire Alex Smith interview at USA Today is worth a read.

H/T CT-Scott in the FanShots