For about a decade and a half, Alex Smith was a very solid NFL quarterback, and he was solid enough to get named to the Pro Bowl three times.
He helped make the San Francisco 49ers contenders again in the early 2010s, and after Colin Kaepernick supplanted him, they traded him to the Kansas City Chiefs prior to the 2013 season.
In Kansas City, he revitalized another dormant franchise and played some of the best football of his career, especially in 2017 when he threw for 4,042 yards and 26 touchdowns, both of which were career highs.
After that season, the team traded him in order to give the starting QB spot to a man named Patrick Mahomes, who had started just one game in 2017, which was his rookie year.
Some wondered what the Chiefs were doing, but Smith said on “The Pat McAfee Show” that he knew his days with them were numbered from the moment they drafted Mahomes.
"I knew when the Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes my time in Kansas City was running out..
Nobody talks about his work ethic and he's an immense competitor" ~ Alex Smith#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/WyJAbsBBJD
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 27, 2023
Smith added that when he started to see Mahomes throw some of his patented flashy passes during practice, he further knew that he was on his way out.
With Smith under center, the Chiefs routinely made the playoffs, but they couldn’t reach the AFC Championship Game, and with Smith at age 33, they felt it was time to make a change.
In his first full season as a starter in 2018, Mahomes tallied 5,097 passing yards and a league-high 50 touchdown passes and was named to the Pro Bowl and All-Pro First Team while winning the regular season MVP, and the rest has been history.
Smith, meanwhile, played two more seasons with the Washington Commanders before calling it quits.
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