Everyone from Hall of Famer Steve Young to the local paper have a take on Alex Smith’s future with the KC Chiefs. Today is a big day for everyone, including Andy Reid, who has given up playcalling duties.
But enough about Big Red. Let’s talk Alex, like everyone else in town.
The Sunday morning pregame shows on CBS, ESPN and NFL Network were both pretty much in agreement that the Chiefs say Alex is their guy right now and they’re not going to Patrick Mahomes but ... we’ll see.
Boomer Esiason on CBS said, “The reason they drafted Patrick Mahomes is because of what you’ seeing right now. There’s no energy there. This has always been a team that ran first, had great defense and then play action off of that. They don’t have Jamaal Charles, they don’t have Priest Holmes, they don’t have Christian Okoye so it falls on Alex Smith’s arm and his energy and his ability to run and make plays. He’s been inaccurate the last couple of weeks. This looks like a dead team walking to me.”
ESPN’s Chris Mortensen indicated that the Chiefs are behind Alex right now but mentioned talk of how short of a leash he has.
Alex Smith has had Reid's support all week but his performance against the Jets also will determine how short his leash gets with rookie Patrick Mahomes in waiting, the sources also say.
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) December 3, 2017
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said something similar, that the Chiefs plan to stick with Alex Smith and they think the Chiefs offense will respond better the rest of the way.
“My understanding it is not off the table that we will see Patrick Mahomes later this season at this point,” Rapoport said. “However, at this point, the Chiefs plan, as it stands right now, is to have Patrick Mahomes take a redshirt season as they plan to have Alex Smith be their quarterback for the rest of the year ... They believe it’s more physical mistakes than anything and they think and hope the offense will respond.”
Former NFL coach Tony Dungy said, “Wow. That’s interesting. Maybe it will jump start this offense that has really been struggling. They need to get back to fundamental football.”
NFL Network’s Bucky Brooks said, “I'm wonder how benching one of the league's best play-callers will affect the Chiefs in the long-term. Nagy will go thru a learning curve as the new play caller but he could give he offense a different feel. His favorite plays could emphasize a different dimension of the offense.”
Former ESPN analyst Ed Werder said, “Since their failure began in Week 6, only the Giants have fewer touchdowns than the Chiefs.”