How many more years?

The fab 5 (both Peytons, Brady, Brees, and Rodgers, however, none of the other QB’s you mentioned can get a win on their own. Stafford, Big Ben and Rivers need help. Their records prove that. Look at their stats when they are playing from behind.
If Alex Smith can get 13 wins, I see no reason why Fitz can’t either. Once you are in the league, once you become a starter, where you are drafted makes no difference. So, if a below average (up to last year) Alex Smith can do it, so can Fitz. And Eli threw MORE Picks last year with a better team then Fitz did this year. In other words, any QB can be better with a better QB.

to think he can win 13 games with a good defense? He won 6 with a truly terrible defense. And a boat-load of injuries. You get him a good defense where he isn’t behind by halftime and then judge. I won’t pass judgement on him, either way, until we field a real NFL defense that is in the top half of the league. Lets see what he can do when he doesn’t have to bail out the team and it’s ineptitude.
Eli threw 25 picks last year, MORE then Fitz did this year. This year, super bowl winner and MVP. It can happen. No clue if it will. I don’t think it is delusional to think that he can play much better. How much better, I have no clue, and won’t judge until they field a real defense.

Why do people think Alex Smith had such a good year? His competition isn’t nearly the competition that Fitz’s is, his skill players are much better, his line is better, and his defense is better. Yes, he had a career year, but I still would want to upgrade him if I were the 49ers. If they had a healthy Peyton Manning, I doubt any NFC team could stop them.

I would bring more firepower than a guy who was a bust until he got the right staff to put him into a good situation. His numbers were still far from being amazing, in a division that was pretty weak as well. He falls in with Flacco, Ryan, Cassel, Schaub.

Explain Alex Smith. Stats would NEVER show that he’d have a career year and is set to make a lot of cash next year.

It’s really, really easy to explain Alex Smith. And aside from throwing 5 INTs instead of something like 10, his season from a statistical perspective is in no way, shape or form surprising. 61% completions is a decent, but mediocre number as is 11.5 yards per completion. The resulting 7.1 yards per pass attempt is a passable, but far from impressive number. 17 TDs in 445 pass attempts is exactly why SF maybe had the worst red zone offense in the NFL this past season. But he only threw five picks, so it’s suddenly a break out season. All he did was bump up his comp% a little less than two percent while his yards per completion remained steady. He actually threw fewer TDs per pass, but cut way down on his INTs. He was even sacked more often despite scrambling for gains more often as well.

San Fran had an outrageous +28 turnover differential. It’s a number that will be extremely difficult to repeat or even approach next season. Only five times in the past five years has a team even had a turnover diff better than +20. San Francisco should not be the model of success that the Bills attempt to duplicate. San Fran, with the same team will have an extremely hard time duplicating it themselves next season.

Alex Smith is not getting a big contract. He may get a big salary, but he won’t get the years. He’s a comparable player to Fitz, but still won’t get the contract Fitz got.

They were 5-2 before injuries crippled our depth

Injuries crushed this team a couple games after that. Injuries are a fine excuse if you’re of the opinion that this team would have bounced back to make a run at 8-8. I think they very well may have done that. But this team was not suffering from players being out of the lineup when they got shellacked by the Jets and Cowboys. Wood went down against Dallas and Jackson and Wilson followed the next week and Buffalo was toast after that. But injuries are not why this team started to struggle in a huge way mid-season.