FanHouse Scot McCloughan

Two weeks ago, Mike Martz Nolan named J.T. O'Sullivan the 49ers starting quarterback, which meant that Alex Smith, the first-overall pick of the 2005 draft, would start the season on the bench.

Apparently, Smith, who seems like a swell guy, isn't very good at this quarterbacking thing, and consequently, he's been relegated to wearing a baseball hat, holding a clipboard, and feigning interest in the on-field goings-on once the season starts.

Come 2009, though, Smith will either be the starter or elsewhere due to his exorbitant contract. History suggests it'll be the latter.

Backup quarterback Alex Smith can't be the backup all season if he has any chance of returning to the 49ers next season, 49ers GM Scot McCloughan said today.

When asked if the 49ers might bring back Smith next season if he weren't the starter, [GM Scot] McCloughan answered, "You can't. The amount of money we're going to invest in him, he'd have to be proven that he's the guy. When we get to the offseason, he'd have to be the guy for next year."

Yeah, that's going to be a problem. Smith has all sorts of issues and it'll take an injury for him to see the field. And while that's possible -- this is tackle football, after all -- once he's under center he'll actually have to impress the front-office types enough to make them keep him around. So far, so bad on that front.

During last year's draft, the San Francisco 49ers used the 11th-overall pick to select linebacker Patrick Willis. Willis would end up being the 2007 Defensive Rookie of the Year, but their other first-round pick, tackle Joe Staley, also had a solid rookie season, though nothing close to what Willis was able to accomplish.

To draft Staley, the 49ers had to trade their 2008 first-rounder, which means that unless something changes, the team won't pick until Round 2 they won't pick until 29th overall*. It also means that the Patriots, the team that swapped picks with the 49ers last April, will have the seventh-overall pick in this year's draft.

Despite hindsight, perfect vision, and all that, San Francisco general manager Scot McCloughan doesn't regret the deal.

"I think Joe Staley will prove out to be a top-10 type caliber pick at a position that is very hard to find," McCloughan said. "It's not only from a standpoint of athleticism and his football potential, he's also a great guy, one of those guys you can build your offensive line around. I'd make the trade in a heartbeat again -- to get an offensive lineman, an offensive tackle, one year before."

Not everybody agrees, especially Patriots fans. From the comments of this story on Mike Reiss' Patriots blog:

I see this separation of powers thing working out splendidly in San Francisco. Head coach Mike Nolan was told he could keep his job if he relinquished his de facto general manager duties. He did, he stays. But it's not clear that just because the 49ers now have hired an actual GM -- Scot McCloughan -- everything's rosy. In fact, the opposite seems more likely:

Nolan can be brutally honest and in an interview in his office last October, he admitted that if he wasn't completely in control he'd be apt to blame others. In the 2005 John Feinstein book on the Baltimore Ravens, "Next Man Up," Feinstein describes a scene where Nolan explodes in the coaches' booth at offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh for what Nolan perceived as bad play-calling. Nolan later apologized to Cavanaugh and everyone else for his meltdown.

Awesome. Nothing like the guy in charge looking to blame other people when things don't go his way. Still, I think Nolan has improved the 49ers, and to his credit, when he arrived, there was nothing. But the NFL isn't about moral victories and rebuilding. It's about actual wins and championships.

And if Alex Smith has another rocky outing in 2008 (assuming Shaun Hill doesn't land the job), or the 49ers post another five- or six-win season ... well, Nolan will probably be looking for work this time next year. On the upside, at least he'll be able to say he had nothing to do with the 2008 draft class.