Thank god for Alex Smith. Some of you will be laughing at that statement while others will be nodding their head. I can’t think of a better quarterback to pass the baton to Patrick Mahomes than Alex Smith. (OK, sure, Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers).
Alex spoke to the media at a community event on Wednesday and he gave all the right answers. It felt real. He said he still thinks he has good years of football left but if he were the GM he would be stockpiling talent at “the most important position in sports” too.
This quote from Alex stood out to me: “Any of that extracurricular stuff that maybe goes on elsewhere just doesn’t take place here. It’s just kind of the environment we have.”
I read that as this is going to be a professional environment. These things with quarterbacks have a tendency to get messy. The Chiefs are not going to feed into that. It will still get a little messy, I would guess. Look at the Jamaal Charles situation. It happens sometimes. But I don’t think this is going to turn into a circus.
Again, I appreciate the way Alex is handling this.
Watch the video and read the quotes below.
Chiefs QB Alex Smith spoke to the local KC media about the drafting of Patrick Mahomes for the first time Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/KbBNI1nVwI
— Pete Sweeney (@pgsween) May 17, 2017
He knew drafting a QB was possible
Alex: Certainly, even speculating wise there was a good chance we could take a guy. We hadn’t really spent any draft capital on a quarterback in a few years and knew there was a potential but I hadn’t found until I came back and first sat down with coach Reid.
He touched base with Mahomes
Alex: Yeah, we talked. I knew when he got drafted and then flew in the next day, I knew he was obviously gonna get thrown to you guys (the media laughs). Really, just touching base. It was quick. It’s a whirlwind. I can remember being there. It’s a lot going on. You’re meeting a thousand different people. It can kinda be an overload. For me, I just wanted to introduce myself and that was really it. Let him take it in. It’s a special time to get drafted and have his family there. For me I wanted to tell him to enjoy it and I just wanted to introduce myself and tell him we would have plenty of time to get to know each other.
The “extracurricular stuff” doesn’t happen here
Alex: In all these situations, they’re all different. You don’t want to shy away from anything. You want to be real. You want to be honest. Sometimes it can be awkward. I mean, it is but you kinda embrace that and be real. Everyone kinda appreciates that, be honest. That’s kinda what I emphasized to him. Any of that extracurricular stuff that maybe goes on elsewhere just doesn’t take place here. It’s just kind of the environment we have.
He gets it
Alex: I’m in a different place than the last time I dealt with something like this. Just in a different place and a different place of mind. I get it, right. If any of us were the GM, this is my opinion, maybe the most important position in all of sports, you’d be crazy not to stockpile talent. You’d be nuts not to, in my opinion. So, I get it. I’m going into year 13. You understand it. At the same time, that doesn’t change my focus. I feel like I have a lot of years left in me. I still feel like I’m getting better to be honest with you.