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All eyes now on O'Sullivan to carry 49er team
By David Zizmor
September 11, 2008
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In this Aug. 8, 2008, file photo San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith throws a pass during a preseason football game against the Oakland Raiders in Oakland, Calif. The San Francisco 49ers put Smith on injured reserve Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008, with a broken bone in his right shoulder, probably ending the former No. 1 draft pick's disappointing four-year career with the club. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)
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SANTA CLARA--Yeah Alex Smith is gone figuring his hair line fracture shoulder injury Smith is written off for 2008. Smith never improved with the surgery he had last season.
Smith is finished for this season. If O'Sullivan plays like he did against the Cardinals last Sunday, which isn't to say that O'Sullivan was great but he was effective for the most part except for the turnovers.
O'Sullivan will stick around, there is really no reason to think that Smith is going to jump back in the future and Niners know that there is no way at that point that Smith was going to be effective. Smith wasn't effective during pre season and he wasn't effective last season he was hampered with injuries and he clearly has fallen out of favor with the Niners coaching staff.
Smith didn't impress offensive coordinator Mike Martz or head coach Mike Nolan, Smith had a mostly rocky relationship over the last couple of years with Nolan. Nolan and Smith didn't seem to get along. They were at least trying to make nice to each other later.
This will be it here but Smith should land somewhere and he was number one pick and someone might be willing to take a shot at him somewhere. He might not have shown the best stuff on the field so far in his career but also Smith had a number of odd circumstances surrounding him, namely four different offensive coaches.
A somewhat lousy team also that never helps in your development. If I was to guess where Smith is headed next it would be to Norv Turner and the San Diego Chargers who might pick him up because Smith in his one season under coach Turner clearly had the offensive game plan under Turner's grasp on offense.
Not to mention the Chargers could use a back up quarterback but again Smith is injured this year and there really is no concern because Smith won't be playing this year. So he's got until next year to be picked up.
This will be very interesting to see how this plays out with O'Sullivan now at the controls for the team and the 49ers are just now just hoping that O'Sullivan can start getting some passes in the end zone.
David Zizmor covers 49ers football each week for Sportstalk along with Morris Phillips and Tony the Tiger.
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