I just walked through the door after a trip from Green Bay (via Minneapolis and San Francisco) and read through the transcript for what has to be Mike Singletary's longest day-after session with the media this year. Singletary definitely was emotional after yesterday's loss in Green Bay, and no doubt that carried over to today. Two things jump out from the transcript. The first is that Singletary continues to be dedicated -- very dedicated -- to Alex Smith but still unsure of whether to swing the offense in the direction of the spread. Here's what he had to say about that issue:
I think the biggest thing for him is having time. I think that's the most important thing for him. It's to have time. I think one of the worst things that we could do right now is to put Alex Smith in shotgun and say, 'OK. Let's go get it guys. Here's what it is.' And just let him throw 40, 50 times a game and let's see where you end up. As I'm looking at Alex Smith right now, Alex Smith, to me, is throwing as well as any quarterback in the league right now - as I'm looking at him right now. He is as accurate as any quarterback in the league right now. I think the smartest thing for us to do continuing to go forward is not to take all of training camp, not to take all of what we have gone into this season and just throw it out and say we're going to go to shotgun. I think the smartest thing for us to do is to continue to open it up as Alex Smith allows us to.
The second thing that jumps out is that Singletary is both complimentary of his players and frustrated/disappointed by/in them. Consider this analogy:
It is like this kid who is going to school and this guy is taking his lunch money every day. You are tired of this guy taking your lunch money. You are bigger than he is, you are stronger than he is, you can take this kid. But because this kid has been built up so much, everything you heard about him, they say this kid is better than you and you believe that. You are going to continue to give the kid your lunch money until one day you decide, 'You know what, I'm done with that. I'm not giving you my money anymore and that's it.' That's the same thing in any situation whether it's football, whether it's life or anything else.
He strikes a similar theme later in the transcript when talking about how some of his playmakers, Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis, have expressed a desire to go to the spread. Singletary says he hasn't heard Smith express himself like that.
Alex is such a humble guy, a meek guy, don't how long he'll stay that way but it's a great thing to have a quarterback like that says 'what do you think, coach? What do you want?' But for him to be doing the things that he's doing right now, I'm not sure how long we're going to have that, but it's a great thing to have right now and I do want him to take that next step and be like, 'Hey, you know what, here's what I like, here's what is good for us.' That would be good and I think that Alex is getting to a place of being more comfortable being able to communicate that way, and I think as we go forward, he will do that. He's certainly gotten better."
When I first started covering the team in 2003, the locker room had guys like Jeremy Newberry, Ron Stone, Derrick Deese, T.O., Fred Beasley and Garrison Hearst. No one ever would dare use the adjective "meek" to describe those players. When Mike Nolan began rebuilding the team in 2005, there was an emphasis on "character guys." He was praised, and deservedly so, for avoiding players of questionable repute. The question now seems to be whether it's swung too far in that direction. After all, you don't want to go into a knife fight with choir boys ... Discuss?
-- Matt Barrows
