Biggest Surprise: Alex Smith
Biggest surprise of the year so far is Alex Smith and it’s not even close. Through his previous 11 season as an NFL quarterback Smith has never shown he could be this good on this consistent of a basis. Alex was good, but nobody was expecting him to surprise his touchdowns from last year before the bye week. He has always been good about not turning the ball over, but nobody expecting him to only turn the ball over once through the first eight games. Alex has increased his deep throws and has been more accurate on those throws. He was the main reason people didn’t think the Chiefs could compete for a Super Bowl this year, now he’s a reason for hope.
I mean, this is pretty obvious right? While I expected Smith to have a career year, he has blown my expectations out of the water. While I’ve always thought Smith had the ability to improve his deep passing game, I naturally assumed it would come with more turnovers. The fact that Smith is slinging the ball downfield and now turning it over less than he ever has is remarkable. Smith is on pace for 4’462 yards, 32 TDs, and zero interceptions, while completing nearly 70% of his passes. If he keeps this up through the second half of the season, and the Chiefs finish with the #1 seed, Alex Smith has to be your league MVP.
The biggest surprise would be Alex Smith. I talked in the offseason about how Smith had to become more aggressive with Mahomes sitting behind him and for the Chiefs to take that next step. While we have seen a few games where he goes back a little bit, he has been a huge improvement over the last few years. He has made some very impressive throws down the field and continues to attack down the field to open up the rest of the offense. We have also seen him get back to escaping pressure and either scrambling or buy time for a play down the field.