KANSAS CITY — Standing on the edge of the Kansas City Chiefs practice field last week, Alex Smith tried to keep his voice down.
He’s soft-spoken by nature, so it wasn’t a challenge. But Smith was extra polite in this case because he didn’t want to distract from offensive coordinator Matt Nagy’s press conference a few yards away. (Those two have a good thing going).
It made for a fitting way to interview one of the NFL’s most underappreciated players. Even in discussing the most exhilarating, most audacious hot streak of his 13-year NFL career, the former 49ers quarterback barely lifted his voice above a library whisper.
“To now be in a system for five years, this is a first for me,” Smith said, quiet enough to avoid being shushed. “We have a level of comfort to rely on, a foundation to rely on. There’s an ability and ease in which you can get to different things because you can say, ‘Hey, we did this two years ago.’ ”
This is the Smith we know: Diplomatic Alex. Understated Alex. Low-key Alex.
But on game days, he’s barely recognizable. The quarterback who earned a reputation as a maddeningly cautious passer is suddenly Air Alex — the swashbuckling, bomb-throwing, yardage-chewing star of fantasy football dreams.
Heading into the Raiders game on Thursday in Oakland, the one-time “game manager” ranks as the most dangerous deep-threat passer in the NFL. Smith leads the league in passer rating on throws of 20 or more yards down field, according to Pro Football Focus. That’s even after his off-game Sunday, when he missed some throws (and took a controversial hit) in a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
According to PFF, his passer rating on 20+ yard throws from 2013-16 was 84.8.
This year, it’s 140.9.
Apparently, the buttoned-up game manager has learned to embrace casual Sundays.
“I just think it’s all kind of come together. His ability, his intelligence, the scheme, the surrounding cast — it’s just all meshing really right now,” said Chiefs offensive lineman Mitchell Schwartz, a former Cal standout.
Somehow, Smith is taking more shots downfield without sacrificing his trademark prudence. Smith has yet to throw an interception this season as part of an overall streak of 202 passes without a pick.
Smith is the first quarterback with 12 touchdowns and no interceptions through his team’s first six games since Randall Cunningham in 1998.
So we visited Kansas City last week to find why Smith is playing like a franchise quarterback a mere 12 seasons after the 49ers drafted him No. 1 overall in 2005.
As it turns out, Smith had Andy Reid’s eye even back in those early days. I asked Reid why he and then-GM John Dorsey traded a second and third-round pick for Smith after the 2012 season.
“Both of us had followed him since college and liked him when he came out,” he said. “I thought he would fit well in the system. Really, he had so many offensive coordinators in San Francisco — you saw that. More than any quarterback in this league, he’s had to execute every offense you can do. But he’s taken to this and done a nice job.”
Smith made the Pro Bowl in 2013 in his first year with Reid and again in 2016. But his numbers this season are in a different stratosphere. Smith had three 300-yard games during his entire 49ers career; he had two by Week 5 this season.
He leads the NFL with a 119.2 passer rating (Tom Brady is second), a 72.9 completion percentage (Drew Brees is third) and 8.53 yards per attempt (a tick ahead of Kirk Cousins).
During my visit, Smith helped explain the transformation (even if I needed to lean in close). Teammates, coaches and broadcasters also weighed in on how the famously careful quarterback has suddenly become the Not-So-Mad Bomber.
Theory No. 1: It Takes a Village. The most popular and obvious explanation is that Smith hasn’t changed at all; his supporting cast has. The Chiefs boast rookie running back Kareem Hunt, who leads the NFL with 885 scrimmage yards, and a blend of weapons that includes cheetah-fast Tyreek Hill, Pro Bowl tight end Travis Kelce and versatile third-down back Charcandrick West. Hunt is a new face, but continuity elsewhere is part of Chiefs’ overall strength.
“Alex has kind of helped raise these receivers. They’ve grown together,” Reid said. “I think that would probably be the thing Alex feels most comfortable with right now — if there is a difference.”
Smith agreed.
“So it’s not only that you’ve been together for a long time: You’ve been together for a long time doing the same stuff and growing together,” he said. “And then you have the ability of the coaches, especially Andy and Nags, to really customize this (offense).”
Theory No. 2: Finally! The Same Offensive Coordinator! 49ers fans can recite this statistic by heart: seven offensive coordinators in seven seasons.
But in Kansas City, Smith has been with Nagy since the day he arrived. Nagy was the quarterbacks coach from 2013-15, before being promoted to offensive coordinator. Together, they operate within Reid’s wildly inventive scheme, a wrinkle-heavy playbook that relies on misdirection, jet sweeps and shovel passes.
NBC broadcasters Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth recently talked on the air about the huge whiteboard Reid keeps in his offense where there are more than 20 other plays he’s still tinkering with.
That wasn’t exactly Smith’s experience when Mike Singletary was his head coach.
I asked Smith what it was like to finally have the coaching stability he never had in San Francisco.
“There, we were just starting over every year on offense and learning the basics and all the mechanics of just how to call a play,” Smith said. “You’re worried about such elementary things when you have turnover like that. It’s not to say that you can’t have success. It’s just more difficult.”
And now?
“Even if there’s a new piece here and there, the other guys know the system,” Smith said. “It’s so easy to go back and help the other guys catch up because we can say, ‘Hey, we did this three years ago against a similar defense. Let’s do that.’
“And you can do it on short notice. At halftime you can say, ‘Remember when we did this?’ And you do that because everybody has such a good foundation in the system.”
Theory No. 3: Drafting Patrick Mahomes Lit a Fire. It raised eyebrows in April when the Chiefs traded up to take the Texas Tech quarterback at No. 10. It had been 34 years since the Chiefs took a quarterback in the first round (Todd Blackledge in 1983), so it was clear how much they valued Mahomes.
The thinking goes that Smith flipped a switch in his own style as a way of holding off the rookie, working harder in the offseason and reporting to camp with a more aggressive approach.
Collinsworth touted the theory during a recent broadcast: “It has an impact on you. It gets you fired up. The first thing you want to do is go straight to the gym.”
But that one’s tough to prove.
“I don’t buy that at all,” said Brian Billick, the former Super Bowl-winning coach turned NFL Network analyst. “To give that theory credibility, you’d have to think that he wasn’t working hard as he could before. I don’t buy that one bit.”
Billick is of the opinion that Smith’s skill set has probably been there all along, buried by other complicating factors. Smith’s tools were exactly what made him a No. 1 pick, he said, “and San Francisco was not the only team that evaluated him that highly.”
Chiefs play-by-play man Mitch Holthus said: “I really think the Mahomes issue is overplayed because I think it takes away from what Alex had done prior. They think, ‘Oh, it’s just all kicked in all of a sudden. Well, wait a second here. Look at ’13, ’14, ’15, ’16 and look at what he’s done.”
Theory No. 4: Smith Changed His Playing Style. It seems plausible that Smith simply got sick of hearing all the game manager criticism. His cynics over the years include ex-Chiefs kicker Lawrence Tynes, who once launched a Twitter rant against the “the checkdown master.”
But Smith himself dismisses this theory. He said that forcing the ball downfield more was a focal point — in 2015.
“Yeah, to be honest, I remember us two years ago talking about taking more shots,” he said. “So we made a very conscious effort in OTAs and camp to do that. The funny thing is, this year, I really feel like it just kind of happened organically.”
Smith threw the ball downfield on 8.4 percent of his passing attempts from 2013-16, according to Pro Football Focus. This year, it’s up to 12 percent.
“Certainly, it wasn’t something that’s been preached to us — or to me — like, ‘Hey, we need to take more shots,’ ” Smith said. “It’s just the way this offense is built. Maybe I’m just unconsciously trusting guys more and if we get certain looks, we take ’em.”
Theory No. 5. He’s Stronger Than Ever. Smith was a lean 21-year-old when he entered the NFL behind an overmatched offensive line. He kept taking his lumps even as the team got better, including a league-worst 44 sacks in 2011.
But now, at 33, he looks like he’s built to deliver the punishment. Men’s Health rated Smith among the league’s fittest quarterbacks and noted that the quarterback has incorporated underwater workouts — like carrying a massive rock on the bottom of the ocean — and beach workouts, where he pulls a weighted rope for strength training.
Holthus watched the transformation. The eight-time Kansas Sportscaster of the Year pointed to a Week 4 game against Washington, when Smith broke loose for a 32-yard run late in the first half.
“Look at that play and his balance to stay in bounds. In fact, the Redskins are actually decoyed. They think his momentum is going to carry him out of bounds — and then he shows the buoyancy of a running back,” Holthus said.
“He looks like Kareem Hunt because he’s able to plant his foot. But that’s his strength — that’s his core strength. He’s just way more athletic and stronger than people give him credit for.”
Theory No. 6: Football Karma Exists. It’s tough to think of a quarterback who has suffered more slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes than Smith. And even harder to think of someone who did so while conducting himself with class.
I asked Smith to name his high point and low point during his time in San Francisco.
“The high is easy,” he said, quickly.
Smith pointed to how his last few 49ers teams broke through the dark days by making the playoffs in 2011 and 2012, ending an eight-year drought. Smith didn’t mention it, but he happened to throw a game-winning touchdown pass to Vernon Davis to beat the New Orleans Saints 36-32 in the divisional round that first year.
Smith is proud that he renegotiated his contract to stay after his fourth year, when conventional wisdom was that he would bolt the first chance he got.
“There were certainly opportunities to leave there,” he said. “But I didn’t want that. I just felt it that the easy way out, and not necessarily the right way. I wanted to stick around and see it through.”
For the low point, I would have expected Smith to choose the time coach Mike Nolan questioned his toughness despite a serious shoulder injury … or a silly controversy about whether Smith had small hands … or the time fans chanted “We Want Carr!” as he clashed with Singletary during a nationally televised game … or losing his job to Colin Kaepernick after suffering a concussion … or waiting for Jimmy Raye to make a play call …
Instead, he skipped the personal stuff to talk about the team.
“What was frustrating there were the couple years prior to (the playoffs),” he said. “Because we were better from a roster standpoint. … We were capable of playing better and we couldn’t put it together. There was a lot of dysfunction. I just remember finger-pointing and an unhealthy environment, all of us included. It think it was a missed opportunity there.”
Now, Smith is on a first-place team with a proven coach, oodles of stability and a dream supporting cast.
Maybe this is where you end up once you take the high road for long enough. How’s that for going deep?