Alex Smith looked relieved. The San Francisco 49ers quarterback pondered the difference in spending an offseason and training camp without having to learn a new offense, and had the aura of a man with added confidence.
Alex Smith is entering his sixth season with the 49ers, but has continuity in the offensive playcalling for the first time.
Smith, working the summer as the unquestioned starter, is headed into his sixth pro season since being drafted No. 1 overall in 2005. It's the first time in his NFL career that he's been in the same offense for consecutive seasons.
"You can't even explain that continuity and carryover, until you're actually a part of it," Smith says after a recent practice. "I haven't had it since college. To start over in March, try to press 'erase' for everything you've learned the year before and then you start over from Square 1 - formations, shifts, the huddle, cadence. ..You're learning all that stuff and by training camp you may be getting into plays that you can actually master."
In each of his first five years he had a different coordinator. First it was Mike McCarthy. Then Norv Turner. Jim Hostler. Mike Martz. The revolving coordinator trend has stopped with Jimmy Raye. No wonder Smith has a newfound comfort zone.
He compares learning a new offense to a new language, with the additional pressure for a quarterback being the need and expectation that he is the best student.
"It's nice to feel like I am really fluent in this," Smith says. "If you're going to take ownership in something, you have to have that."
Raye senses the difference, too. During the offseason, the coordinator and quarterback spent more time breaking down defenses than they did last offseason when the priority was learning the offense.
Says Raye: "You can just see him flourishing, growing. It's becoming second-nature."
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SOURCE: USA Today
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