Moving on from Alex Smith: Easier said than done

The Options

The most popular player on a bad team is almost always the backup quarterback. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

Chase Daniel

Now, regardless of what you think you saw in a couple of practice games against a bunch of guys who are mostly unemployed, Chase Daniel is almost assuredly NOT the savior of this franchise.  Daniel has been in the league long enough for most professional NFL talent evaluators to know what he is.  Yes, sometimes NFL people get it wrong…but they are wrong much less often than the people who once cheered for Brady Quinn.

Chase Daniel is a quality backup option, especially for a team that is hoping to groom a young quarterback into a starter.  That is why the Chiefs have Daniel.  They wanted him there to help work with young guys like Tyler Bray and Aaron Murray.  Alex Smith doesn’t need his help.  Smith has Andy Reid, Brad Childress, Doug Pederson, and Matt Nagy…if Chase Daniel is bringing something more than all of these guys, then we have a lot more problems than just Smith.

Furthermore, as a seven year veteran backup in a contract year, it makes absolutely no sense to stick Daniel in there.  The last thing this team wants is a repeat, albeit self-inflicted this time, of the Matt Cassel situation where they sign a guy based on a limited amount of work and it ends up blowing up in their face.  No, it is far more sensible to leave Daniel as the backup and let him leave in the offseason, or re-sign him as a backup.

Aaron Murray

Now here is the real option if the Chiefs are going to make a change.  However, this is not an option that should be exciting anyone.  As of right now, Aaron Murray’s post-college highlight is a soap opera situation that has run the gamut of reality television, family affairs, and two professional sports teams.

On the field, Aaron Murray is simply the guy who can’t beat out Chase Daniel for the backup job.  That is truly disturbing when you consider the fact that the Chiefs really could have used the financial relief from cutting Daniel’s contract earlier in the offseason (some of the fallout on that will be talked about later).

Unfortunately, Murray really just hasn’t shown anything on the field to warrant a change at quarterback.  Sure, we could stick him out there to see what we have…but then other teams will also know what we have, which can come back to bite us if we need to make some kind of offseason move to acquire a quarterback.

Next: What about after this season?