Who was the best QB the 49ers had in the last decade

Kaepernick had the most excitement and promise. Alex Smith was the more boring, but consistent. I was more disappointed in Kaepernick even though I felt like Alex was just the worse pick in the world when I really thought Aaron Rodgers was our guy. I was truly a Kaepernick fan watching all Nevada Wolfpack games and the regression and inability to just beat Seattle and progress as a passer just got depressing.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by SteveWallacesHelmet:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:
I get that people are still mercilessly harping on him for not being a "gunslinger" here with the fantastic WR corps of out-of-the-league Crabtree and Brett Swain, players that couldn't really have their play elevated much more than where they already were. I was okay with him limiting mistakes to give us a chance in those games.

Regardless of QB, we were a power running team that never had the arsenal to be higher flying until 2012 where Alex was on pace for roughly 25 TDs, but unfortunately got hurt mid-season. No question he was never on the level of a guy like Mahomes or other hyper-elites, but he was smart AF, taking calculated risks and playing efficiently to give the team a chance to win more often than not. Smith was more clutch as well, orchestrating five game-winning drives in 2011, three in 2014, and three in 2016. Kaepernick only had 3 GWD once in his career.

So yes, I would take 2012 Alex over him, as well as over 2019 Jimmy G. Sure, Jimmy slings it, but his pre-snap reads and decision-making are not even in the same galaxy as Alex. Nor is his deep ball. Colin was a one-read QB who couldn't throw a fade if his life depended on it. Kaepernick, who has a losing record as a starter, never passed for more than 21 TDs in a season, never passed for more than 3400 yds in a season, and never came close to matching Smith's best two QB ratings. Smith has 3 Pro Bowls under his belt, more than the other two combined (0). In the end, the decision was not that hard between those guys.

"Kaepernick never passed for more than 21 TDs a season".....neither did Alex. His high was 18.

"Kaepernick never passed for more than 3400 yards in a season"....neither did Alex. His high was 3144.

"Kaepernick never came close to matching Smith's best two QB rating seasons"....Kap's best was 91.6 if you remove the half season of 2012. Smith's best two seasons were 90.7 and 82.1 if you remove his half season of 2012 as well. So yeah, Kap's best exceeded Alex's.

(I can picture you having a problem with me taking out the half seasons for some reason, so if you want to use those, Smith had a 104.1 and Kaepernick had a 98.3....so the idea that Kap's 98.3 "never came close to matching" a 104.1 and 90.7 is still wrong.)

"Smith has three pro bowls under his belt".....completely irrelevant to the conversation. All were accomplished on a different team.

OTC, you are a good poster who I respect....this is easily the worst post I have ever seen from you. Making stuff up. Factually incorrect information. Etc. Just an awful post.

Nope, it's all accurate, straight from pro football reference. I never make stuff up. I never said the numbers I referenced were ONLY WITH THE NINERS, and I thought that this was blatantly obvious to anyone who followed his career. Secondly, the post never specifically stipulates that you MUST judge the player ONLY by their body of work in San Francisco. When it asks who was the best, I look at the player as an individual, and they cannot be accurately judged solely by their body of work with one team only. That's completely dishonest.

I'm looking at their careers. Even only by their Niner performance, I still would pick Alex, who I believe would've won the Super Bowl against the Ravens. Just my opinion. Also my belief that if not for Kyle Williams against the Giants, we go to and win the Super Bowl that year as well with Alex. Again. Just my opinion. Can neither be proven or disproven and I respect any argument to the contrary.

It was obvious to everyone but you that this thread is about the player as a 49er.

Your opinion is Alex was the best quarterback the 49ers had in the last 10 years because he had a good post 49er career and he hypothetically would have won games for the 49ers that he was benched of or that our team didnt make. That's essentially what you are saying here. You are certainly entitled to say it, but I find it laughable.

Originally posted by SteveWallacesHelmet:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by SteveWallacesHelmet:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

I get that people are still mercilessly harping on him for not being a "gunslinger" here with the fantastic WR corps of out-of-the-league Crabtree and Brett Swain, players that couldn't really have their play elevated much more than where they already were. I was okay with him limiting mistakes to give us a chance in those games.

Regardless of QB, we were a power running team that never had the arsenal to be higher flying until 2012 where Alex was on pace for roughly 25 TDs, but unfortunately got hurt mid-season. No question he was never on the level of a guy like Mahomes or other hyper-elites, but he was smart AF, taking calculated risks and playing efficiently to give the team a chance to win more often than not. Smith was more clutch as well, orchestrating five game-winning drives in 2011, three in 2014, and three in 2016. Kaepernick only had 3 GWD once in his career.

So yes, I would take 2012 Alex over him, as well as over 2019 Jimmy G. Sure, Jimmy slings it, but his pre-snap reads and decision-making are not even in the same galaxy as Alex. Nor is his deep ball. Colin was a one-read QB who couldn't throw a fade if his life depended on it. Kaepernick, who has a losing record as a starter, never passed for more than 21 TDs in a season, never passed for more than 3400 yds in a season, and never came close to matching Smith's best two QB ratings. Smith has 3 Pro Bowls under his belt, more than the other two combined (0). In the end, the decision was not that hard between those guys.

"Kaepernick never passed for more than 21 TDs a season".....neither did Alex. His high was 18.

"Kaepernick never passed for more than 3400 yards in a season"....neither did Alex. His high was 3144.

"Kaepernick never came close to matching Smith's best two QB rating seasons"....Kap's best was 91.6 if you remove the half season of 2012. Smith's best two seasons were 90.7 and 82.1 if you remove his half season of 2012 as well. So yeah, Kap's best exceeded Alex's.

(I can picture you having a problem with me taking out the half seasons for some reason, so if you want to use those, Smith had a 104.1 and Kaepernick had a 98.3....so the idea that Kap's 98.3 "never came close to matching" a 104.1 and 90.7 is still wrong.)

"Smith has three pro bowls under his belt".....completely irrelevant to the conversation. All were accomplished on a different team.

OTC, you are a good poster who I respect....this is easily the worst post I have ever seen from you. Making stuff up. Factually incorrect information. Etc. Just an awful post.

Nope, it's all accurate, straight from pro football reference. I never make stuff up. I never said the numbers I referenced were ONLY WITH THE NINERS, and I thought that this was blatantly obvious to anyone who followed his career. Secondly, the post never specifically stipulates that you MUST judge the player ONLY by their body of work in San Francisco. When it asks who was the best, I look at the player as an individual, and they cannot be accurately judged solely by their body of work with one team only. That's completely dishonest.

I'm looking at their careers. Even only by their Niner performance, I still would pick Alex, who I believe would've won the Super Bowl against the Ravens. Just my opinion. Also my belief that if not for Kyle Williams against the Giants, we go to and win the Super Bowl that year as well with Alex. Again. Just my opinion. Can neither be proven or disproven and I respect any argument to the contrary.

It was obvious to everyone but you that this thread is about the player as a 49er.

Your opinion is Alex was the best quarterback the 49ers had in the last 10 years because he had a good post 49er career and he hypothetically would have won games for the 49ers that he was benched of or that our team didnt make. That's essentially what you are saying here. You are certainly entitled to say it, but I find it laughable.

And I find it laughable that you are acting like Smith was benched for performance when in reality it was just an injury and the hotshot hand-picked guy by Jim was someone the league hadn't seen, so the coach rode that wave as long as he could and it cost him the Super Bowl and contributed at least partially to him eventually losing his job.

I'm not surprised though by anyone's crapping on Alex now, especially if they did in the past. Smith never was given enough credit for anything he did. He was better than many gave him credit for. What he did after San Francisco only further proved that fact. No one can say for a fact that I'm wrong about what I'm saying, so I know it pisses some off that the best they can do is trash my point of view and spit on that well-presented evidence, but hey, all the power to you.

I will say this, Jimmy absolutely has a chance to surpass Alex in my mind if he stays, can stay healthy, and can manage to improve the deep accuracy and his mental aspects of the game -- specifically his target selection.

I could think Kap would of beaten the Giants in 2011 then we would of beaten New England pretty easily. The maybe he'd do this works both ways ultimately it's worthless though.

Originally posted by tjd808185:

I could think Kap would of beaten the Giants in 2011 then we would of beaten New England pretty easily. The maybe he'd do this works both ways ultimately it's worthless though.

Exactly. Pointless to argue. There's points to be made all around so that's why no one will ever change their mind. This thread was destined to turn into this, so it's time to peace out from it.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Exactly. Pointless to argue. There's points to be made all around so that's why no one will ever change their mind. This thread was destined to turn into this, so it's time to peace out from it.

This thread turned into this when you decided to put your own qualifications on the topic question (which every single person in this thread interpreted as how the QB did as a 49er but you), and used hypotheticals to argue your opinion.

If CJ Beathard leaves the 49ers in the offseason and goes on to win 7 superbowls, would you consider him the best 49ers QB ever? Of course not.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by tjd808185:

I could think Kap would of beaten the Giants in 2011 then we would of beaten New England pretty easily. The maybe he'd do this works both ways ultimately it's worthless though.

Exactly. Pointless to argue. There's points to be made all around so that's why no one will ever change their mind. This thread was destined to turn into this, so it's time to peace out from it.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

And I find it laughable that you are acting like Smith was benched for performance when in reality it was just an injury and the hotshot hand-picked guy by Jim was someone the league hadn't seen, so the coach rode that wave as long as he could and it cost him the Super Bowl and contributed at least partially to him eventually losing his job.

I'm not surprised though by anyone's crapping on Alex now, especially if they did in the past. Smith never was given enough credit for anything he did. He was better than many gave him credit for. What he did after San Francisco only further proved that fact. No one can say for a fact that I'm wrong about what I'm saying, so I know it pisses some off that the best they can do is trash my point of view and spit on that well-presented evidence, but hey, all the power to you.

I will say this, Jimmy absolutely has a chance to surpass Alex in my mind if he stays, can stay healthy, and can manage to improve the deep accuracy and his mental aspects of the game -- specifically his target selection.

Alex is not good. Getting carried by Reid/Charles/Kelce/Hunt/Hill/Defense after leaving San Fran does not further prove anything. The fact that he couldn't get one legit playoff win with that team proves how bad he is.

We literally ran one of the best playoff offenses of all time because of Kap (https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2017/postseason-qb-drive-stats-and-dvoa).

Could you please explain how that cost Harbaugh a SB lol?

It's the Steve Young/Joe Montana curse. Any other QB playing for the 49ers will have both of their giant shadows looking over them. Hell, Young had a hard time overcoming Montana's shadow until he won a ring.

The odds of getting two HOF QB's back to back is crazy slim. Favre to Rodgers is the only other one I can think of. It's just crazy hard to find a franchise QB these days.

Originally posted by DonRamon:
It's the Steve Young/Joe Montana curse. Any other QB playing for the 49ers will have both of their giant shadows looking over them. Hell, Young had a hard time overcoming Montana's shadow until he won a ring.

The odds of getting two HOF QB's back to back is crazy slim. Favre to Rodgers is the only other one I can think of. It's just crazy hard to find a franchise QB these days.

Brady to Newton
Flynn to wilson
Rivers to Hubbert
Brooks to Brees.
Brees to rivers

Just to name a few.

Originally posted by SteveWallacesHelmet:

"Kaepernick never passed for more than 21 TDs a season".....neither did Alex. His high was 18.

"Kaepernick never passed for more than 3400 yards in a season"....neither did Alex. His high was 3144.

"Kaepernick never came close to matching Smith's best two QB rating seasons"....Kap's best was 91.6 if you remove the half season of 2012. Smith's best two seasons were 90.7 and 82.1 if you remove his half season of 2012 as well. So yeah, Kap's best exceeded Alex's.

(I can picture you having a problem with me taking out the half seasons for some reason, so if you want to use those, Smith had a 104.1 and Kaepernick had a 98.3....so the idea that Kap's 98.3 "never came close to matching" a 104.1 and 90.7 is still wrong.)

"Smith has three pro bowls under his belt".....completely irrelevant to the conversation. All were accomplished on a different team.

OTC, you are a good poster who I respect....this is easily the worst post I have ever seen from you. Making stuff up. Factually incorrect information. Etc. Just an awful post.

None of those points mean anything anyways. Alex is and always was a bad QB.

He talks as if we never got to see Alex without top run games, top defenses or without talents like Charles/Kelce to carry him. Alex spent 7 years with all that and got nothing lol. He sucked.

Kap wasn't afforded half the opportunities Alex was, and he still accomplished more. All of his passing percentages and ratings are higher than Alex too. Kap also outplayed Alex in 2016 while playing with our Baalke squad. It's pretty clear who was better if you add context. Alex ended up with a great coach/offense/defense, while Kap ended up with the literal worst coaching/offense/defense. That doesn't make Alex better lol that just makes him more fortunate.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by Oakland-Niner:

Originally posted by SoCold:

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by SteveWallacesHelmet:
Anyone who didnt vote for Jimmy or Kaepernick is trolling.

What has Jimmy done to deserve that title? He was carried to the SB with a run game and top defense. The defense and run game is gone this year and you see the real Jimmy. I voted Gabbert because when it comes to bang for the buck, Gabbert easily tops the other QBs. He doesn't lose SBs and is currently on his 5th team which shows he is a coveted asset around the NFL.

My thoughts exactly.....He doesn't lose Super Bowls, because he's never even sniffed one without buying a ticket.

That is a great point. I didn't think about that.

that "running game and defense" carrying campaign never gets old

Who cares they're all bad to avg

Welp they ruined it already...

Shaun Hill

Originally posted by NJNiner:

Shaun Hill

Since a lot of people like to assign a winning percentage to QBs....

Shaun Hill has the best winning percentage of the list aside from Jimmy.