It will be Blaine Gabbert starting for the San Francisco 49ers this weekend as Colin Kaepernick continues his incredible fall from grace by being benched.
The San Francisco media talked with the 49ers offensive coordinator who had an Alex Smith comparison for Gabbert ... but it's more comparing their situations, not their style of play.
"When we got Blaine on board here, there were some similarities to what we felt Alex Smith went through," 49ers offensive coordinator Geep Chryst said, via CSN Bay Area. "Alex came here, was very young and played, had to slug out a lot of tough situations. And we felt like Blaine had all this talent, and as a young player, maybe a change of scenery would be good for him."
Not quite the hot take my headline might have suggested.
Go back and look at Alex Smith's early stats. They are really bad. He was clearly not in a good situation, nor was Gabbert. The odds were against Smith coming back and making something of his career and they're against Gabbert doing the same. It's possible, sure. But I wouldn't bet on it.