I wasn't sure we would ever reach a day when we got a quarterback NFL Draft bust that was worse than Ryan Leaf, but man oh man is Alex Smith ever cutting it close.Today, the 49ers put quite possibly the worst #1 pick in the history of the NFL - Alex Smith - on the injured reserve list for the 2008 season. You may recall that Smith suffered a non-contact injury to his surgically repaired shoulder last Friday, a rather fitting end to what has been a disastrous career.
Anyway, here's what Smith leaves the 49ers with:
- 32 games played
- 11-19 record
- 54.4% completion rate
- 19 touchdowns to 31 interceptions
- A career 63.5 quarterback rating
By comparison, here are Leaf's numbers:
- 25 games played
- 4-17 record
- 48.4% completion rate (Yikes)
- 14 touchdowns to 36 interceptions (Double yikes)
- A career 50.0 quarterback rating (Triple yikes)
I'll be honest, Leaf really is worse than Alex Smith, and by a significant degree, which I admittedly didn't think was possible. But while Leaf is the biggest quarterback draft bust ever, period, he wasn't drafted #1 overall (even though I know he nearly was). And while there have been a number of other highly drafted flameout quarterbacks, like Joey Harrington, Akili Smith, and Rick Mirer to name a few, none of them were drafted #1 overall either. So the question is, has there ever been an overall #1 drafted quarterback that's been worse than Smith in the history of the NFL? It doesn't look like it.
Here's the short lost list of Smith's competitors - mainly because most #1 overall quarterback selections at least have mediocre careers.
- Michael Vick - Dogfighting is why he's on here.
- David Carr - He's been horrible, but Carr still has much better stats than Smith.
- Tim Couch - Generally considered one of the worst #1 pick QB busts ever, even more so than Carr for some reason. By the way, Couch has significantly better stats than Smith.
- Jeff George - He may not lived up to expectations at all, but had a pretty long career. I'm not sure Smith will ever see a football field again.
By far.
QB Smith on IR, 49ers sign QB Martin [Goal Posts]
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