++ [ originally posted by Torkel ] ++
Cleveland?
Possible, but not at the #3 slot. Rodgers may have been the 2nd best QB available in this draft, but that doesn't mean that he's an automatic Top 5 selection. If Rodgers had been selected first overall, Smith wouldn't have gotten past Miami at #2. That's how much of a difference there was between the two QB's.
I don't get to see college ball over here, but I've read that Smith might not even take Tim Rattay's place, and I've also read that he would have been drafted after Big Ben, Rivers and Manning had he been in last years draft. If all that's true I think the 49ers should have gotten someone else, like Pacman or Braylon.
Smith will end up being the starter by week 2. They wouldn't have spent 35 million on Jonas Jennings in the free agency market and then use a 2nd and 3rd round selection on Offensive Lineman if they weren't looking to protect their investment.
As far as being selected after Roethlisberger, Rivers, and Manning are concerned, while that may be true consider these 3 factors.
#1)- obviously, this is a different year.
#2) - Alex Smith is only 20 years old, or in other words, a full 2 years younger than any of those 3 that were drafted last year.
#3) Smith graduated from college in just over 2 years, and has been graded as the most intelligent QB to come out in the last 30 years. Alex was responsible for running a very complicated spread offense scheme at the University of Utah, where he was responsible for any audibles that needed to be called at the line of scrimmage. His 21-1 record as a starter at Utah, including a thorough beating of Pitt this year in the Fiesta Bowl proved to a lot of people that this kid is the real deal.
That being said, I do think that Edwards was possibly the best player in the draft, but no WR is worth a 50 million dollar contract with a 20 million dollar signing bonus as a rookie, and San Francisco needed to have a new identity to the squad for this new regime, and you don't normally have a Wide Receiver as the new face of your franchise.
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