Sorry, Alex, Your Time Has Passed

Greg Cosell bears resemblance to Uncle Howard.

Football analyst and NFL Films producer Greg Cosell said on KNBR this morning that there is no question that the San Francisco 49ers think Colin Kaepernick today is a better quarterback than Alex Smith:

My guess is for people in the business this is not even a controversy. One guy is a significantly better passer than the other guy. To me there is not really an issue here. Kaepernick could obviously have a bad game anytime, because he's only played two games and he's inexperienced and there are things he hasn't seen.

Could he have a poor game? Sure. But you're talking about dimensions in a pass game. One guy has every dimension you want throwing the football, the other guy is limited. This is really not news.

Jim Harbaugh gets the job as the 49ers head coach. I guarantee that one of the first things he did in his preparation was he probably watched almost every throw Alex Smith has made in his career. That's what coaches do---they're nuts. This is the kind of stuff they do. So after doing that they draft Colin Kaepernick in the second round. That's step one.

Step two is they play a season. They play a season in which Alex Smith throws the fewest passes of any 16-game starter.

Step three: they try to get Peyton Manning in the off-season. Everything tells you that they believe Colin Kaepernick ultimately---and they didn't know if he could play until he played, but they know what his skill-set is, they know what his quarterback attributes are in relation to Alex Smith's quarterback attributes---Colin Kaepernick has the better quarterback attributes.

Nearly everyone feels bad for Alex Smith, who has finally become a good NFL quarterback who had a decent shot at winning the Super Bowl. Barring injury or a series of horrendous performances by Colin Kaepernick he won't get that chance with the 49ers.  © 2012 Stephen Yuen

Body language says it all: Alex and Colin (AP photo via SFGate)