One of the primary complaints is that he held the ball to long and took too many sacks. Well, now we know he held the ball so long because he had no other option but to throw the ball away. How well would that have gone over if every time the pass rush got close he threw the ball away. People here would have been calling him soft and afraid to take a hit. Knowing what you know now, he should be given credit for standing in and taking the hits.

No one knows for sure what he will do this year. But its clear he is being given far more options than he has ever had since coming to the 9ers. The biggest thing working against him now is that this is the 4th different offensive coordinator in 4 years for Smith, with really 4 different offensive philosophies.

Offense #1 - Mike McCarthy - West coast offense variation.

Offense #2 - Norv Turner - Cowboy offense, with its original coach calling plays.

Offense #3 - Forgot his name (thankfully) - Totally inexperienced coach who tried to blend some of the West coast offense with Turners offense, and was completely conservative in his play calling.

Offense #4 - Mike Martz - Totally new offense with far more options, different terminology, and far more details for him to learn for the 1st time (like hot reads).

I expect Smith to be far better than he was last year. But by no means do I think that what he does this year will be his ceiling. I remember back at the beginning of Smith's 2nd year I said I expected him to have at least a 1 to 1 td to int. ratio, and people said I was crazy. IIRC, he finished a little better than that, which gave people some hope around here for him. Then last year happened, and he was again the scape goat for everything. I've been saying all along the problem was more the OC than either of the QB's. Now we are finding out just how bad the offensive plan really was. Smith will be far better than he was last year. And if they can keep Martz as OC, he will keep getting better.

By the way, I think the addition of Ted Tolner last year was the primary reason that Hill looked so much better than Smith last year. He came on after Smith was done for the season.