http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ninerinsider/detail?&entry_id=52578
Reconstructing Alex Smith
<!-- 1 -->
Mike Singletary, at his weekly news conference, provided more details about the players' request to open up the offense. The more details that come forth, the more you think this situation might have been somewhat orchestrated by Singletary. The person the team possibly needed to convince more than anybody about abandoning the run-first philosophy was offensive coordinator
Jimmy Raye.
Singletary approached Smith before the Green Bay game and to get his thoughts on the offense. Not surprisingly, Smith said he wanted to open up the scheme; then last week, Singletary encouraged Smith to go to Jimmy Raye and express those thoughts.
Alex Smith is not the only one being evaluated.
"I went to (Alex) and I said, 'Ok, what did you think about this, what did you think about that?'" Once Singletary got the answer, he said. "OK, that's outstanding, now go tell Jimmy."
Singletary said it would have been easy for him to go tell Raye himself, but it was too easy to pull "the power card."
Singletary is intimately aware of Smith's history with the prior head coach
Mike Nolan. How they publicly feuded, how Smith felt he was humiliated by Nolan when the coach "called him out" in a team meeting and questioned Smith's ability to play with the shoulder injury that eventually required two surgeries and an arthroscoppy. Raye said Smith was scarred by that and by the annual change at coordinator. So, Singletary has been trying to rebuild Smith into a forceful team presence in the huddle and in the meeting room. Telling Smith to go to Raye was part of Singletary's overall strategy to reconstruct his presence with the team.
By advocating for what he wanted Singletary said, Smith now has to take "ownership" and perform. He's getting the offense he wants, now he has to prove he can perform in that scheme. Singletary said Monday that the next five games, even the next two or three games, will prove if Smith can take ownership. But more than that, the onus is also on Raye, he must prove that he has the flexibility to turn this offense into one dominated by the pass. Interestingly Raye is as much on the hot seat as Smith.
<!-- 2 -->Posted By:
Kevin Lynch (
Email) | November 30 2009 at 01:26 PM
Read more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ninerinsider/detail?&entry_id=52578#ixzz0YO6StITL