The Alex Smith Paradox: How one trade changed everything for Chiefs, 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs have been doing business for years, particularly in the quarterback market. We take a look at how one exchange altered the trajectory of both franchises’ current QB play.

There are a ton of storylines coming into Sunday’s matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The 49ers sport a loaded stable of offensive weapons that could give the Chiefs depleted secondary fits. The Chiefs’ offensive line is looking to bounce back from a couple of lackluster performances against Nick Bosa and a Niners front that has racked up the second-most sacks in the league in 2022. The Chiefs offense in general will take on its third top 5 defense in the last 4 weeks after facing Tampa in Week 4 (number 5), Buffalo in Week 6 (number 1), and now San Francisco in Week 7, who is number 2 in the league thus far.

Talking points this week, right up until the game kicks off on Sunday, will revolve around the availability of key players for both teams. At the time of this writing, the Chiefs still have questions about Joe Thuney and Mike Danna who were limited participants in practice on Thursday but appear to be tracking to play. The outlook on Rashad Fenton is not so bright, and Trent McDuffie is fighting to get off the IR.

The 49ers are in a much worse position injury-wise than the Chiefs, though. Four defensive starters have missed practice time this week and are up in the air for Sunday – Arik Armstead, Samson Ebukam, Talanoa Hufanga, and Charvarius Ward – and starting offensive tackle Mike McGlinchey is questionable with a calf. Add to that Nick Bosa, Drake Jackson, Jimmie Ward, and Trent Williams all being limited in action with groin, knee, hand, and ankle injuries respectively and you have a true battle of the walking wounded here in Week 7.

This is nothing new for midseason NFL games. Teams that are lucky enough to have the injury bug not hit them until Week 7 are typically the teams that you see enter these contests with 4-2 or better records. The Chiefs stand in that category with the Niners slightly behind them at 3-3 after a puzzling loss to the Atlanta Falcons last weekend. Both teams came into the 2022 season with the goal of exorcising demons from last season – the Chiefs obviously lost a heartbreaker in the AFC Championship game to Cincinnati, while the 49ers let a 10-point second-half lead slip away in a 20-17 loss to their divisional rival and eventual Super Bowl champions the Los Angeles Rams.

But the heartbreak hangovers from 2021 are not the only commonalities these two teams share. Looking back at the past 30 years, the Chiefs and the 49ers have been oddly tied together in a lot of ways. When you think about rivalries in the NFL, you obviously start within your own division. Do the Chiefs look at the 49ers the same way they look at the Raiders, Broncos, and Chargers? Absolutely not, just as the 49ers don’t carry the same disdain for the Chiefs as they do for the Rams, Seahawks, and Cardinals. After that, contenders tend to look at the teams that have consistently proved to be hurdles historically and recently in the postseason. For KC that list would include names like the Indianapolis Colts, Pittsburgh Steelers, Buffalo Bills, and Cincinnati Bengals. For the 49ers? The Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers just to name a couple.

What ties these two franchises together the most, though? Well, nothing in a truly traditional sense. I’m sure 49ers fans would disagree to an extent as I would imagine the sting of letting a 10-point lead in Super Bowl 54 slip away in the fourth quarter is still pulsating a bit, but historically speaking we’re nowhere near rivalry territory. The 49ers were founded in 1946 and the Chiefs in 1960. In the 62 years that these two could have met, they’ve only faced off 14 times total, including Super Bowl 54. The 49ers won 6 of the first 9 from 1971 to 2002, and the Chiefs have won 4 of the last 5 including Super Bowl 54. The series is split 7-7 all time.

So all time you can’t really call this a rivalry, but the Super Bowl matchup always makes things interesting. Do Chiefs fans and 49ers fans hate each other? Far from it, actually quite the opposite. If anything there is a healthy respect and admiration for what each franchise represents and has accomplished both recently and historically. Even the uniforms, although different shades of red, are two of the more iconically classic outfits the entire league has to offer. The games on the field are not where the parallels of these franchises are defined. The oddity of this friendly, budding rivalry lies in how many significant players these franchises have shared, specifically at the most important position in the game. What could make it more contentious is where it’s gone since one man changed teams.

Where it all started

Before the Dallas Cowboys owned the ’90s and the New England Patriots manhandled the 2000s and 2010s, the San Francisco 49ers were the emperors of the NFL in the 1980s. Bill Walsh arrived in 1979 along with Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana, and the prosperity for the franchise soon followed. Super Bowl championships in 1981, 1984, 1988, and 1989 highlighted a decade where the franchise became one of the most recognizable in American professional sports and built a roster of Hall of Famers including Jerry Rice, Ronnie Lott, Fred Dean, and Charles Haley, but the centerpiece of the dynasty without question was Joe Montana. Until a young lefty from BYU named Steve Young interrupted things.

Young didn’t interrupt things for the 49ers franchise per se, he just shook things up for Montana. By the end of the 1992 season, San Francisco was ready to move on to the young gun and deal away the QB who at the time had more Lombardi trophies on his resume than anyone to ever play the game. But they would need a suitor who was willing to make a deal. Enter the quarterback-hungry Kansas City Chiefs.

I joined the Deep Dig podcast this week to discuss the game this Sunday and explained to them in our intros that I’ve been a Chiefs fan since I had a working memory. That dates back to around 1993, or the year that the Chiefs last went to the AFC Championship before Patrick Mahomes came to town. They did that behind a 37-year-old Joe Montana. Montana and Marcus Allen reignited a flame in Chiefs Kingdom that had been extinguished throughout some very lean years in the 70s and 80s. Montana was the answer to every Chiefs fan’s prayers. He gave us all pride in putting on Chiefs Starter jackets that would ignite in a second if they were within 5 feet of an open flame.

The quarterback luck of the franchises remained fairly unfazed, though. The 49ers enjoyed continued success with Steve Young, winning the Super Bowl in 1994 and remaining a contender for the entirety of his Hall of Fame career which lasted until 1999. The Chiefs had Montana until he retired in 1994, but never cashed in their chips for the ultimate goal of a Lombardi trophy.

Still, Montana was a godsend to Kansas City, even in just two seasons. He temporarily reinvigorated a fan base longing for a competitive football team. He even blessed Paul Hackett with enough of a legacy in his time in Kansas City (he was the Chiefs quarterbacks coach under Marty Schottenheimer) that his son could one day ride those coattails and drive the Broncos into the ground. Joe Montana gave the 49ers a decade of football immortality, he gave the Chiefs hope and Kansas City new life, and his gifts are still being given in the Kingdom today.

Where it all went wrong 

Who else have the Chiefs and 49ers shared? Well, the list after Montana gets a little less impressive, but that’s kind of to be expected right? KC never got ahold of Steve Young, but what the Chiefs did land from San Francisco quarterback-wise after Montana is making me rethink my “no ill-will” comment from earlier. San Francisco dealt the Chiefs Steve Bono, who had been the 49ers’ third-string quarterback behind Montana and Steve Young, in 1994 and he would eventually start for Kansas City in 1995. While the initial results were a Montanian 13-3 in the regular season, a disappointing 10-7 loss to the Colts in the playoffs was followed up by a whimpering 9-7 finish in 1996, the first time the Chiefs had missed the playoffs since 1996. Okay, so Bono was a bust.

So what would the Chiefs do to replace Bono?

Sign another 49ers backup! Yes, in ushering out the Steve Bono era the Chiefs elected to insert Elvis Grbac, who would ultimately end up in Kansas City for 4 seasons. Grbac wouldn’t really lead the Chiefs to the playoffs at all, although they did go in 1997 and he did in fact start in the divisional round game against Denver over Rich Gannon. The Chiefs were 13-3 in 1997 thanks in large part to a 5-1 stretch led by Gannon in place of the injured Grbac. When the playoffs rolled around, Marty and the gang decided to stick with Grbac and leave Gannon on the shelf. The Chiefs would face AFC West rival Denver in the AFC Divisional round that year. How’d that go?

The Chiefs lost that game, the Broncos went on to win the Super Bowl, and Grbac lost the favor of Chiefs Kingdom. Lucky for him he still had the heart of Marty Schottenheimer and Carl Peterson. The decision to keep Grbac as the starter over Gannon led to Gannon leaving in free agency, signing with the Oakland Raiders in 1999. He would win the NFL MVP and lead the Raiders to the Super Bowl in 2002, and Grbac was out of KC by 2000 after never leading them back to the playoffs. So, to recap: Elvis Grbac’s claims to fame in Kansas City:

• He helped the Denver Broncos win the Super Bowl in 1997
• He indirectly helped the Oakland Raiders go to the Super Bowl in 2003
• He was featured as People Magazine’s Sexiest Athlete in 1998. One caveat – they meant to photograph Gannon, but got Grbac by mistake because the assignment was for the “Chiefs quarterback”. Whoops.

Talk about an illustrious career.

Transition years for both franchises 

In the years to follow Steve Young’s retirement, the 49ers held on to relevancy momentarily. Jeff Garcia gave the Niners a puncher’s chance in 2001 and 2002, but they never made it past the Divisional round of the NFC playoffs between 2000 and 2011. They tinkered around with Tim Rattay and Ken Dorsey at quarterback before selecting Alex Smith (more on him in a moment) as the number 1 overall pick in 2005. The Chiefs, meanwhile, found stability with veteran Trent Green from 2001 to 2006. Green led the Chiefs to an AFC West title in 2003, and to the playoffs in 2006, but never won a playoff game in Kansas City.

From 2006 to 2010 both franchises struggled mightily under center. Smith was oft-injured for the 49ers, who were forced to deploy the services of players like Trent Dilfer, Shaun Hill, Chris Weinke, J.T. O’Sullivan, and Troy Smith in his place. They never made the playoffs in that span, and only finished .500 once. The Chiefs’ list of signal callers was equally as appalling. Damon Huard, Brody Croyle, Tyler Thigpen, and Matt Cassel had their shots under center in KC. Cassel led the Chiefs to a division title in 2010 which promptly ended with an embarrassing home playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens. If you look closely enough, you can still find pieces of Dexter McCluster scattered in the grass at Arrowhead from Cassel hanging him out to dry and Ed Reed taking care of the rest.

Something happened in 2012 that would change the trajectory of both franchises, though. In a season where Kansas City would officially find rock bottom going 2-14, the worst record in the league, and experiencing unimaginable tragedy late in the season, San Francisco would find success, a second straight NFC West championship, and a quarterback controversy that would alter the trajectory of the entire NFL for years to come.

The Alex Smith trade 

The 49ers came out of the gates hot in 2012, with a 6-2 to head into their bye week. After the bye? A matchup with their division rival, the St. Louis Rams. The game ended in a 24-24 tie, but the 49ers lost their starting quarterback Alex Smith to a concussion that game. Insert Colin Kaepernick, and I think you know the rest of the story. Kaepernick led San Francisco to a 5-2 finish, and all the way to Super Bowl 47. The 49ers would ultimately lose to the Baltimore Ravens in that game, but the future was clear (at the moment) to the 49ers. It was out with the old, and in with the new.

There are not many shared sentiments in being near the pinnacle of your profession and being in the depths of despair with the exception of one – hope. For Kansas City, the hope was that the right head coach and quarterback combination would eventually the right head coach and quarterback combination would walk through the doors and drag the franchise and the city out of the darkest moments that either had experienced in quite some time. For San Francisco, the hope was that the loss in Super Bowl 47 would be their first of many visits to the big game behind the big arm and immense athletic ability of their new quarterback.

Both seemed true in 2013.

Following a 2-14 season, the Chiefs signed longtime Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid as the man to lead their franchise into a new era. Shortly thereafter, the Chiefs traded for the castaway 49ers signal named Smith. The 49ers’ plan seemed to work to perfection – they reached the NFC Championship game again in 2013, losing narrowly to the eventual Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, but the future was still bright, right?

Not so much. From 2014 to 2018, the 49ers failed to make the playoffs. As for the Chiefs under Alex Smith? Well, from 2013 to 2017 they made the playoffs in 4 out of 5 years, including their first playoff win since Joe Montana’s 1993 team.

In 2017 both teams were in flux at the quarterback position, in very different ways. The Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes, and the plan was in place for the young gun to sit behind the old head and learn how to be a pro. The 49ers? Well, Kaepernick’s days in the league ended, and the team made a trade in 2017 to bring in New England backup Jimmy Garoppolo. San Francisco would rebuild a defensive juggernaut leading up to the 2019 season as Kansas City crafted its own offensive juggernaut behind Mahomes from 2018 on.

The result? Two teams that met in Super Bowl 54. We all know how that went.

But the 49ers saw what the Chiefs did with Mahomes and Smith, and in 2021 attempted to replicate it with Garoppolo and Trey Lance, who they traded their 2022 and 2023 first-round picks to the Miami Dolphins to select at number 3 overall. Perfect! Bring in the young gun and let the seasoned vet show him how to be a pro, right?

Well, it hasn’t quite played out that way. Don’t get me wrong – Garoppolo has found immense success as the starting quarterback in San Francisco. He’s been to a Super Bowl and NFC Championship game in the last 3 seasons. The 49ers are in the hunt again this year. But Mahomes has and continues to redefine greatness in Kansas City after being able to learn from Smith for a season. Is that the reason why? Well, not completely, but it certainly didn’t hurt.

The 49ers attempting to copy and paste the Smith/Mahomes transition in their own franchise has not worked thus far. Which is the irony in all of this. From 1993 to 2000, the Chiefs tried to cheat off of the 49ers’ homework when it came to quarterback play, but it looked like they were just a line off and flunking every assignment. But something shifted in the universe when the Alex Smith deal went down. Call it luck for the Chiefs, or bad luck for the 49ers, but the quarterback play for each franchise has been deeply impacted by that move – for better and for worse.

In San Francisco, there is still hope that Trey Lance can become what they envisioned when taking him number 3 overall. In Kansas City? The only hope is that the Mahomes era is a dream we never wake up from.