San Francisco 49ers

It will be interesting to see if Alex Smith can excel in new offensive co-ordinator Mike Martz’ fast break offense.  The 49ers surely hope so or Smith might find himself on the bench after Shaun Hill’s emergence late last season.  Smith has a good arm and he’s mobile in the pocket but he often throws the football to the other team and that won’t be tolerated anymore.  Smith played in 7 games (all starts) last season for the 49ers and he completed 94 of 193 passes (48.7%) for 914 yards with 2 TD passes and 4 interceptions (57.2 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 13 times for 89 yards (6.8 ypc).  If Smith doesn’t improve his game soon he might get banished to the bench for good.  Smith has now played in 32 games (30 starts) in his NFL career and he has completed 435 of 800 passes (54.4%) for 4,679 yards with 19 TD passes and 31 interceptions (63.5 QB Rating).  He has also carried the ball 87 times for 339 yards (3.9 ypc) with 2 TD runs.

Shaun Hill will battle Alex Smith for the starting job on the 49ers and he might win it based on how well he played last season.  Hill might not be the most athletic QB but he knows where to go with the football and he could excel in the Niners’ new offense.  Hill played in 3 games (2 starts) last season for the 49ers and he completed 54 of 79 passes (68.4%) for 501 yards with 5 TD passes and 1 interception (101.3 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 12 times for 14 yards (1.2 ypc) with 1 TD run.  Hill only played in 1 game in his NFL career before last season and he didn’t attempt a pass.  He ran the ball 2 times for -2 yards (-1.0 ypc) in his only game before last year.

J.T. O’Sullivan came west to the 49ers with offensive co-ordinator Mike Martz from Detroit where he was the backup QB last season.  O’Sullivan is clearly the third best QB on the 49ers’ roster but he will at least have the edge of knowing the playbook.  He played in 4 games (0 starts) for the Lions last season and he completed 13 of 26 passes (50%) for 148 yards with 1 TD pass and 2 interceptions (48.2 QB Rating).  He also carried the ball 4 times for -10 yards (-2.5 ypc).  O’Sullivan only had played in 1 game (0 starts) in his career before last season and he did not attempt a pass while carrying the ball 2 times for -2 yards (-1.0 ypc).

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE 2008 SEASON:  D

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 2:33 pm and is filed under Positional Previews, Bloglockers, Front Page, General Niners Chat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.