Hey Alex, about the 49ers’ interest in Peyton Manning …

[John Walsh]

Hey Alex, about the 49ers’ interest in Peyton Manning …

Posted by Cam Inman on May 24th, 2012 at 9:44 am | Categorized as
Uncategorized

Until another theme emerges from an actual game, one that remains on
the national radar is the 49ers’ pursuit of quarterback Peyton Manning
in free agency and how Alex Smith is coping with it.

For the past two months, Smith has been asked repeatedly about it —
and “repeatedly” Thursday meant twice during his 15-minute interview
on SiriusXM NFL Radio with hosts Rich Gannon and Jim Miller.

Blending diplomacy with leadership, Smith offered a sincere and
familiar take on the Manning matter. Here are his two responses,
followed by a transcript of the interview, with another highlight
being Smith’s confession about how he had a bad history of pressuring
himself to make plays when needed:

First response: “It was more strange that anything. Looking back, I’d
been in constant communication the entire time with Jim (Harbaugh) and
Trent Baalke, even before the season ended, about a new contract and
going to get things worked out. We were doing the back and forth, them
and my agent. The contract was out there. It was about getting the
language right and the numbers right. Then all of a sudden, you think
you’re close, free agency is approaching and the deal is about to get
done, then obviously a little strange to get the Peyton Manning thing
thrown in there. But the thing through all of it, Jim has always been
up front with me, has never lied to me and that’s what I’ve
appreciated that through all of it. And for me, I looked at it as,
‘This is my team.’ It’s more and more so than ever in my career that
this is my team and this is my job. It’s not something I was going to
give up. I don’t know if it would have ever happened, but if it meant
competing with Peyton Manning, that’s not something I was going to
back down from. It ended up working out the way it did. I kind of
laugh about it now, the way it all happened. But I’m glad to be back
here and this is where I wanted to be the entire time.”

Second response: “As odd as that situation was, I guess the great
thing through it all, Jim’s always been up front. From last year’s
lockout and the entire season, this situation was no different. I was
in constant communication. He was coming over to my house and we were
on the phone every day. Same thing withTrent. It was a unique
circumstance. Having a guy like Peyton on there on the market doesn’t
happen often. They kicked the tires, or whatever phrase you want to
use on it. For me, the offer had been out and I’d been in contract
talks with them for the month and a half prior to that, and that had
never changed. All of a sudden, it came out with the Peyton thing came
out and the contract talks with me never stopped. I was really focused
on that. There’s a lot of unknown out there. It was my first time
dealing with free agency. It’s a little different. I really felt like,
you know, yeah the NFC Championship game is not something we’re
settling for but it was a productive year, especially with no
offseason and limited time with the playbook. I really felt like,
yeah, I deserved the opportunity to come back and be the starting
quarterback this year, no question.”

* * *

On ball security: “Obviously every offense starts the season talking
about ball security. Everybody has that meeting in training camp
talking about ball security, talking about how it affects games, wins
and losses. With this coaching staff, especially at the quarterback
position having Jim there day in and day out coaching quarterbacks
about the fundamentals and decision making, and to me that’s the main
thing. If you’re a quarterback making good decisions, that is ball
security. And then everybody touching the football and making it a
priority daily to carry the football the right way and do all the
little things. It kind of became, as we got on a little stretch there,
it became a source of pride for us and everybody bought in on the way
we were winning games. Defense played great and special teams played
great, and on offense we weren’t putting up crazy, record-setting
numbers as far as yardage goes, but scoring points when we had to and
taking care of the football and doing little things that helped us win
games. Guys really bought into that. It became a source of pride.”

Weighing risk vs reward, why everyone bought into the message
offensively: “From my perspective we do a lot on offense. But when it
came to the quarterback position, it got simplified. We really tried
to simplify things as far as the reads, the progressions, things like
that. We were doing a lot scheme wise but I really felt my job got
easier. I’m asked to be the distributor: run the offense, do the
little things, throw the ball where it’s supposed to go. If that means
checking the ball down a lot, then that’s what we’re doing. And you
have those handful of plays where you have to make a play. In other
years, I tried to force those, and last year I just played my game,
dialed back and felt like I was the distributor of the offense. Get
the ball into playmakers hands, and then I watch the film the next day
and there would be a handful of plays where I made plays and I don’t
even remember them happening. They just come to you and that’s a good
thing, that’s how you want them to happen. If you get under center and
say you I have to make a play here, that usually results in a bad
thing, at least in my history. As far as the team goes, having a
little success early is what kind of sold everybody. Early on we had
the two road trips on the east coast. We went toCincinnati and had a
tough game there that we won in the fourth quarter. At the time,
everyone thought it was a game we should have won but nobody realized
how goodCincinnati was. We stayed there inOhio that entire week and
then went out to Philly and came back and won a good game at the end
of the fourth quarter, and that was really the turning point to this
team. It took us to 3-1 and everybody was really buying in to that
point.”

How has the career transformation been for you? “As a young player, I
dwelled too much on the mistakes I made, like two series before. You
get disgusted with yourself. Then all of a sudden you’re at the next
play and next series. I’ve been through a lot, obviously, in my career
here and it’s done nothing but help me. I have so much of a better
mentality as far as the player I am. No question quarterbacks have to
have that, ‘I don’t care what happened on the last play, I’m going to
getcha.’ As a young player, it was hard for me. I was constantly
trying to prove to everybody on every single play what I could do. If
the last play didn’t go very well, it really ate at me. I’m definitely
in a much better place mentally and doing the little things. I try to
focus on my preparation and doing the little things.”



Could you have been a Miami Dolphin in 2012? “I don’t know. Like I
said, from the get go, my intention was to always be back. It’s what I
wanted from before the season ended. I loved what was going on with
the guys in the locker room and the coaching staff and the chemistry
we had going on. It was my first time being a free agent and I figured
you do the rounds. You look at what’s out there. But for me, my heart
was always here and I wanted to be back here.”

On working with Tom House on his throwing mechanics this spring? “It
came in a roundabout way. I had a couple shoulder surgeries a few
years back and I really felt like my mechanics had changed since then.
Some in a good way, some in a way I wasn’t comfortable with. I had
developed habits that weren’t good. Really I confirmed that with coach
Harbaugh last year. There were some habits I developed that I didn’t
like. I talked to Drew Brees and he’s the one who turned me on to
(House). Drew works with him every year and worked with him after he
hurt his shoulder inSan Diegoand loved everything he was about. I felt
it was worth it. Going into my eighth year, looking to get better. We
have a saying here with coach Harbaugh, it’s like NASCAR, if you can
get 1 mph better, it’s worth it. I really felt like this was the
offseason to do it. I had time and went down there. All of a sudden
I’m there with Matt Cassel and Carson (Palmer). This has nothing to do
with football. Tom’s the first one to say that. There’s no X’s and
O’s. There’s no quarterback talk down there. This is purely the
mechanics of throwing. He’s a baseball guy but has worked with a lot
of quarterbacks, and there’s a lot of carryover there. We don’t get to
stand on a mound, get warmed up and throw; a lot of times we make
awkward throws and have to do different things within the pocket just
to get the job done. But looking at my mechanics and what’s developed,
and breaking it down. He has a camera, puts things over your body, and
has a 1,000-frames-per-second camera that can really break down your
throwing motion to a really fundamental level. Some good things, some
bad things. For me it was great to look at my mechanics, what I do
well, what I don’t, where I need strengthening. Almost all of us
football players, we’re weak in the same area, we’re too strong in the
same, we all lift the same and do too much bench press, Olympic lifts
and power lifts. A lot of the little muscles around our shoulder
weren’t strong enough.

On the addition of new offensive players: “That’s the nature of this
game. As coaches and players, we’re trying to get better, and you look
at the X’s and O’s and the interception reel and ways to get better.
On the personnel side, that’s their job to bring in better players and
make us better as a team. They did a great job adding to the pieces we
have here, some playmakers that can help us. You have to have the kind
of depth to play well by the end of the season. This is a physical
game and things are going to happen. You have to have guys there who
can step up and make plays. As the season went on, we got thin there
toward the end. With the guys they’ve added, Randy (Moss) and Mario
(Manningham) on the outside and through the draft some guys at skill
position who can really help us this year.”


Cam Inman