Derrick Johnson done? Alex Smith playing great

Yes, Alex Smith has played possibly the best football of his career, and yes he’s showing to be effective. All that being said, yes, the Chiefs top draft need is quarterback.

I believe it’s a moot point about whether the Chiefs should keep Smith or backup Nick Foles. Smith is the guy. That will leave Smith and never-used third-stringer Tyler Bray as the only quarterbacks set on the roster for next season. Considering the team thought so much of Bray they went and signed Foles to be the backup, one must truly wonder what the front office thinks of Bray’s future.

As I’ve mentioned before, Smith’s contract only has $7.2 million in guarantees after this season, and you can be sure that Smith’s agents are already working the Chiefs to get a new contract, one that ensures Smith gets paid.

Drafting a quarterback, and high (none of this late-round flyer BS anymore) allows the Chiefs to have a ‘competition’ for the backup spot to Smith in 2017 while giving the team options to replace Smith in 2018. When multiple impact players have increasing salaries in 2017 and 2018, the Chiefs will be forced into either replacing Smith or replacing impact players such as Justin Houston.

This is a deep and talented roster that returns numerous impact players, so the organization can afford to get aggressive and get a quarterback. Combined with the fact they don’t ‘need’ the quarterback to play early, being able to bring along the quarterback slowly is a valuable option.