Alex Smith on the start-or-sit debate with rookie QBs

Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz talks with former NFL QB Alex Smith about whether rookie QBs should start right away or sit behind a veteran, something Smith has experience with as both a former #1 pick and veteran with Patrick Mahomes behind him. Alex joins Yahoo Sports on behalf of USAA.

Video Transcript

Jason Fitz with Yahoo Sports, hanging out with Alex Smith joining us on behalf of USA A uh excited to get into some of what you're doing with them, Alex.

But first, let's start talking football and I gotta talk quarterbacks with the quarterback because you obviously have so much experience in having to play.

But also watching somebody sit the great debate right now with all the young quarterbacks.

Should they play right away?

Should they sit if you were running an organization, what would you do with the young quarterback?

Yeah, I mean, the truth is there's not one size fits all right.

These situations are all so different.

Um I think you have to try to look at all the variables II, I think at the heart of this though as an organization, when you go select a quarterback with an early pick, you want to do everything in your power that when that player steps foot on the field, that they have the best chance of success and right, and it's not only where they're at in their journey and their maturity, right?

How much have they played?

How much experience do they have?

What kind of system.

Are they gonna be running?

But then it's the pieces around them.

Right.

Not just the other 10 guys in the huddle, uh, but certainly from an offense, defense, special teams.

Right.

Like you want, you want them to go take the field and have the best chance of success.

And, uh, too many times I think organizations don't have a plan.

Uh, they just throw a kid out there and cross their fingers and, you know, hope they do well.

And I, I don't believe that the only way to develop a quarterback is this trial by fire, right?

You don't just have to send them out there and hope they struggle their way through, uh, to success.

It is, uh, you know, listen, I, I lived it, you can go out and develop bad habits, you can go out and your confidence can be stolen from you.

Um, and it, it doesn't have to be that way.

Uh, so I, I, again, I don't think there's a one size fits all.

Uh, but I do think, uh, listen, there's, there's examples of both, right?

Like in the last two years, we've seen arguably the greatest rookie quarterback seasons of all time and CJ Stroud and now Jay and Daniels, uh, but at the same time, listen, uh, you know, Patrick Mahomes didn't play his rookie year, right?

Aaron Rodgers didn't play for several years.

Jordan love now, didn't play for several years.

There's a lot of examples of the other way as well.

Um, I think though, uh, we just encourage organizations to have a plan and then also some patience.

Uh, certainly what we're lacking here as, as of late, when you look at Bryce Young and, uh, Anthony Richardson and these guys that have been through a lot of, um, you know, dysfunction so far early in their career and then obviously AAA pretty short leash stick with Anthony Richardson for a second because this one's interesting to me, we all know coming out of college that the thing he didn't have was a lot of time on task, right?

Like he needed to be on the field, then he gets on the field and it doesn't look good and now the team is a little ahead.

So all of a sudden they said Anthony Richardson, maybe that's better for the locker room.

I hear all of that.

But when you have a quarterback that specifically was drafted without time on task, how can you develop him if he's not getting on the field, you can develop a quarterback without him playing.

I, I firmly like would push back on that.

Listen, he had played 13 games in college, right?

He was 20 years old.

He was so young.

He had such a bright future.

I, I really look back at last year and don't think he needed to go out there and play right away.

Uh, you know, he played four games all of a sudden he takes some big hits and he, he hurts his shoulder and he's out for the year.

Right.

Like I, there was nothing really productive about that.

Um, this is a guy that I think would have really benefited from being around a veteran quarterback that and understanding what it looks like to have a front row seat to see a guy prepare week in and week out to go out and play.

The little things that it takes to play quarterback in the NFL.

I think that's what you're seeing this year is a bit of a reset with them, right?

Hey, maybe sit down here's Joe Flacco, a pretty vetting veteran savvy guy to get to go see him play and do it a different way.

Uh, and hopefully Anthony Richardson can kind of continue to keep working on his game and the fundamentals obviously on the practice field, uh, and then get to see, uh, you know, Joe play and, and stay ready so that when the next opportunity comes, he can go out there and obviously show, show some progression.

All right, you mentioned at the beginning, you join us on behalf of USA, a tell everybody what you're up to.

Yeah, you know, Veterans Day is here on Monday and, and listen, I think we all love and appreciate our veterans and their service, but this is really about doing more than just saying thank you, right?

And I think as civilians we often don't know what to say.

And so we do fall back on that.

Uh And this is really about making a connection with the veterans in our community.

Doing more dig deeper, not keeping it so surface and it doesn't have to be anything.

Uh, crazy big, uh, find a veteran near you in, in your community, a neighbor and, and go have a conversation, take him to coffee, uh have a meal, go go volunteer at a veteran facility.

Uh And again, let them know uh what they mean to us, right?

So often I think they feel isolated as they come back from service.

Um They do feel alone and uh you know, listen for me, I didn't serve uh but I suffered a traumatic leg injury at the end of my career.

Um that, you know, I wasn't in a good place for a long time.

Uh I almost took my leg, it almost took my life and, and I was depressed and ashamed of my leg.

Uh and I felt alone and, and then I got access to military medical care and it changed my life and I got to go to the greatest rehab facility in the world uh for limb injuries.

And it's the center for the Intrepid and it's a military rehabilitation clinic.

And I got to rehab alongside our servicemen and women.

And I got to, to see up close and personal, uh that kind of resiliency and courage and uh, it's the first place I said out loud that I wanted to play football again.

And, uh, I never would have stepped foot on the field if it wasn't for the people down there in that place and their approach, uh to the mindset and the shared, the shared struggle.

Um And so I'm so grateful for it and this is really about kind of paying that forward.