Harbaugh the QB Whisperer?

[threelittleturds]

So, with a little background we all know Harbaugh got a lot of praise for developing QBs in college with Josh Johnson at USD and Andrew Luck at Stanford. Along with rating Romo and Gerrard as better prospects than Carr while he was with the Raiders. The question was if he could do it at the NFL level.

What are you thinking so far with what he's done with Alex Smith? He's not turning our frog into a prince by putting up MVP numbers, but at least he's turning our frog into a likeable stable boy.

Smith's QB rating is now at 97.7, which is 15.6 points higher than any previous year. His completion percentage is at 67.3 percent, 6.8 points higher than any previous season. His average per pass is at 7.4, and the first time he's cracked 7.0 yards per pass for a season which is kind of shocking since this is mostly a dink and dunk offense so far. His TDs are low at 4, but his Interceptions haven't been this low since he spent the season on the IR. Smith has taken a lot of sacks so far at 14 in 4 games, I know the O-Line has struggled but I'm of the belief that Harbaugh is having him take the sacks instead of force bad throws... which is also why he only has one INT on the year.

I know it's frustrating to watch the offense sputter and stumble at times because of the limitations with Smith. Although to me, being able to get such a high performance out of Alex Smith even though we as fans know better than anyone just how bad he is, I think Harbaugh is living up to his billing of being a QB Whisperer. He may not have Smith winning us games, but at least he took the team away from Alex Smith losing games.

I like what he's turned Smith into so far this year, it's making me believe that if he can do this with Alex, then the team is in pretty good hands when it comes to him developing Kaepernick into the type of QB who can be the difference maker for the offense.

 

[JMedlock5186]

I personally dont mind the conservative call as long as we are winning and not turning the ball over

 

[MW49ers5]

So, with a little background we all know Harbaugh got a lot of praise for developing QBs in college with Josh Johnson at USD and Andrew Luck at Stanford. Along with rating Romo and Gerrard as better prospects than Carr while he was with the Raiders. The question was if he could do it at the NFL level.

What are you thinking so far with what he's done with Alex Smith? He's not turning our frog into a prince by putting up MVP numbers, but at least he's turning our frog into a likeable stable boy.

Smith's QB rating is now at 97.7, which is 15.6 points higher than any previous year. His completion percentage is at 67.3 percent, 6.8 points higher than any previous season. His average per pass is at 7.4, and the first time he's cracked 7.0 yards per pass for a season which is kind of shocking since this is mostly a dink and dunk offense so far. His TDs are low at 4, but his Interceptions haven't been this low since he spent the season on the IR. Smith has taken a lot of sacks so far at 14 in 4 games, I know the O-Line has struggled but I'm of the belief that Harbaugh is having him take the sacks instead of force bad throws... which is also why he only has one INT on the year.

I know it's frustrating to watch the offense sputter and stumble at times because of the limitations with Smith. Although to me, being able to get such a high performance out of Alex Smith even though we as fans know better than anyone just how bad he is, I think Harbaugh is living up to his billing of being a QB Whisperer. He may not have Smith winning us games, but at least he took the team away from Alex Smith losing games.

I like what he's turned Smith into so far this year, it's making me believe that if he can do this with Alex, then the team is in pretty good hands when it comes to him developing Kaepernick into the type of QB who can be the difference maker for the offense.

Well thought out and well written post! I shall rep you for content and humor ("...but his Interceptions haven't been this low since he spent the season on the IR.") Hilarious!

Nicely Done, Three!

 

[Flyingiguana]

it can take a qb 4 years to reach their potential. smith's year 4 was basically last year and his coordinator got fired for being an idiot. i wouldn't bank on kap turning into a starting qb, i just don't think he has smith's talent.

remember smith was making progress under norv and then got injured the next season and ended up losing a full season. nevermind the number of coordinators, i'm surprised he's been able to bounce back to even have a game like we seen today.

 

[clyde_carbon]

Harbaugh is the man. His two challenges today were awesome as well. One he had to to do pretty much blind.

 

[deep9er]

i'm certainly happy Alex Smith is playing well off the bat, expected him to start off slower due to CBA (slower along with everyone else).

are we seeing him close to his ceiling right now?

obviously, as his teammates improve, he'll go along for the ride. but taking that into account, is he near his own ceiling?

 

[Kinzu]

i'm certainly happy Alex Smith is playing well off the bat, expected him to start off slower due to CBA (slower along with everyone else).

are we seeing him close to his ceiling right now?

obviously, as his teammates improve, he'll go along for the ride. but taking that into account, is he near his own ceiling?

No and yes,

I think what we are seeing is our #1 pick finally getting what he never had over the last 7 years. A good coaching staff that understands the position and how to build him up in the system. They are making the game simple for him and letting his confidence build this year as if he was a rookie all over again. The pay offs so far have been huge.

Alex has probably shown us about all he has in terms of athletic ability and the throws he can make so I never expect those things to change, but as his and the teams confidence continues to grow he will start to look better and better as a starting QB. We will probably see him finally start to make more and more plays in key situations as well.

It's nice finally having coaches that understand asking your QB to hand it off twice and then convert an obvious passing situation on 3rd and long is not a healthy way to build a young QB. It's funny to because we still do that to a degree, but the play calling on those 3rd down plays has been designed to put Smith in a position to make the play or at least avoid the costly ones.

Wins like today go a long way by the seasons end.

 

[Geraint]

Only when the line plays decent and we have the two starting receivers fit can we see what Alex's ceiling is like. The improvement he has made is just from having a decent coach and no doubt he will keep improving. Just look at the second half against the Eagles when he got decent blocking.

 

[mem49er]

Harbaugh is the man. His two challenges today were awesome as well. One he had to to do pretty much blind.

I think this is something that has kinda' fallen by the wayside, but his challenges were clutch. I think he's already won more in 4 games than Sing did all year. That's the kind of info Pozz usually has handy.

 

[southbaysportsfan]

What has impressed me most about Harbaugh is that you can tell he is improving as a coach and is trying hard to learn more about his personnel. Brit Miller catching balls out of the backfield, Kendall Hunter getting more touches, Vernon Davis not blocking every down anymore... etc. I believe that Harbaugh having the "tight ass" cost us the Dallas game. With that said, I dont expect harbaugh to be close to perfect coming out of the gate. The first half of the philly game was very disapointing, and obviously the half time adjustments that were made were huge. I for one thought that Kap may start the second half, Im sure glad he didnt. Harbaugh gives the players and fans optimism heading into every week. I would be lying if I thought the Niners would beat Philly, but I did expect a close game. Looking at the rest of the schedule, every game could be won. Im not saying we will win everyone, but unlike years past we can look at the schedule and expect to win a lot of games and have a chance in other. The only game that looks extremely tough to me is Baltimore(they only scored one offensive td yesterday). Call me crazy, but Harbaugh has the PLAYERS and FANS believing.

 

[deep9er]

I personally dont mind the conservative call as long as we are winning and not turning the ball over

agree it STARTS with us not turning the ball over. agree, it was expected our season would start 'conservative' due to CBA. granted, i expected our run offense to be better than it was.

but its no longer 'early in the season', so good to read they're adding stuff into the offense. not surprising Harbaugh is growing the offense with baby steps, taking as much as this O-line provides.

we're fortunate that Alex Smith didn't take a few games to 'get it going', he's played well (relative to himself) from the get go.

 

[threelittleturds]

I like what you guys added about Harbaugh outside of his QB Whisperer thing.

His challenges so far have been great, and not wasted efforts. I also agree that you can see him improving as a coach as he learns the strengths of his players. Getting Kendall Hunter more involved paid off this week, and getting Vernon Davis more involved the past two games has paid off for the passing game.

I also agree that the offense might be a little more conservative than usual because of the CBA dispute, along with still not having everyone out there. When Edwards returns, that should certainly help Lobsterbush and Morgan out by putting them on potentially lesser CBs. I'm still hoping to see that 4 WR set of Edwards, Crabtree, Morgan and Ginn a few times a game. Teddy on the 4th guy may give him a chance to get behind the defense for big bombs (and hopefully not drop it)

 

[JMedlock5186]

agree it STARTS with us not turning the ball over. agree, it was expected our season would start 'conservative' due to CBA. granted, i expected our run offense to be better than it was.

but its no longer 'early in the season', so good to read they're adding stuff into the offense. not surprising Harbaugh is growing the offense with baby steps, taking as much as this O-line provides.

we're fortunate that Alex Smith didn't take a few games to 'get it going', he's played well (relative to himself) from the get go.

indeed I think that people, though they say otherwise, expect to see an offense similar to the high scoring packers or patriots and they fail to remember that there was a lockout and these players are still getting used to the new offense, although we are making progress I think it will be a few years of the Harbaugh regime before we are dominant

 

[deep9er]

indeed I think that people, though they say otherwise, expect to see an offense similar to the high scoring packers or patriots and they fail to remember that there was a lockout and these players are still getting used to the new offense, although we are making progress I think it will be a few years of the Harbaugh regime before we are dominant

yep, they'll hit a ceiling sooner or later where more talent is needed? fact is we don't have 'dominant' talent at QB. for THIS season fine, not complaining.

as long as Alex Smith doesn't regress, we'll be fine. all QB's have a poor game here and there, but if he basically maintains this level (over 4 games), fine.

 

[JMedlock5186]

yep, they'll hit a ceiling sooner or later where more talent is needed? fact is we don't have 'dominant' talent at QB. for THIS season fine, not complaining.

as long as Alex Smith doesn't regress, we'll be fine. all QB's have a poor game here and there, but if he basically maintains this level (over 4 games), fine.

Indeed, I think that they will search out the right pieces within time. and in the offseason they will have the opportunity to put together a solid roster. I like the fact that they didnt reach for FA this offseason and tried to settle on a solid roster pickups IE Braylon and Carlos