Alex Smith instead of Cousins? Could work

OPINION:

he last time the Washington Redskins made a trade for a 33-year-old starting quarterback with coach Andy Reid, it didn’t turn out too well.

Hopefully, for Redskins fans, Alex Smith isn’t Donovan McNabb.

The news broke late Tuesday that the Redskins had traded for Kansas City Chiefs’ three-time Pro Bowl quarterback Alex Smith, in return for a third-round draft choice and cornerback Kendall Fuller, according to various reports.

The deal also reportedly includes a four-year contract extension for Smith, who had one year left on his deal with the Chiefs.

Remarkably, as night went on into the next day, the obsession became not Smith or Kirk Cousins, but Fuller, the Redskins third-round draft pick in 2016 who was their slot corner.

You would have thought the Redskins traded the second-coming of Darrell Green.

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AUDIO: Former Washington Redskins Tight End Donnie Warren with Thom Loverro

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The reaction was startling. Critics said the Chiefs fleeced Washington because Fuller was part of the deal. His teammates expressed shock and dismay — particularly safety and personnel genius D.J. Swearinger, who is on his fourth team in five years. “People say they wanna win right but you throw away your best defender!?!?,” Swearinger tweeted. “Somebody you can set a standard with?!?! #Defense will win championships!!”

Fuller is a good young cornerback who was highly regarded. But this deal was about quarterbacks. You gave up a quality cornerback for a quality starting quarterback. Hardly seems lopsided to me.

Then again, maybe the outrage was because Fuller, based on his social media reaction, was convinced he hadn’t been traded when the news broke and hadn’t been told by Redskins officials — a classless move, but one we’ve come to expect from owner Dan Snyder and team president Bruce Allen, the Prince of Darkness.

The trade means the end of the Kirk Cousins era in Washington. The Redskins’ starting quarterback since 2015 had been playing under the franchise tag the last two seasons, and will now enter free agency — which is what Cousins has wanted since the day he was drafted by Washington behind Robert Griffin III in 2012.

Upon first glance, it would appear that the Redskins, after their self-destructive handling of Cousins negotiations for the last three years, have landed on their feet. They have a quarterback in Smith coming off a career year – 4,042 yards passing, 26 touchdowns and five interceptions – and the knowledge of how much their quarterback position will cost them for the foreseeable future. And having played in Reid’s system, he should be a good fit for Redskins head coach Jay Gruden.

Short of drafting a quarterback in the first round this year and going with backup Colt McCoy, the Redskins seemed to have few options moving forward. This is one option no one saw coming.

It’s not a cheap option – Smith’s deal is reportedly worth $94 million, with the stunning figure of $71 million guaranteed when completed. For that kind of money, the 33-year-old quarterback’s career year (he’ll be 34 in May) this past season with Kansas City better be a building block for better years ahead.

But let us remember — this is the Redskins, the organization that is the elephant graveyard of the NFL, where careers come to die. Alex Smith will likely soon learn about the aura of self-destruction that surrounds this franchise.

Cousins is familiar with it. He has had a front row seat to the chaos – the RG3 kingdom, the Scot McCloughan back stabbing, the carnage. He rose above it all during his time in Washington, never driving down the low road where traffic jams at Redskins Park, and made himself rich in the process — $20 million in 2016 under the franchise tag and $24 million this past season. And now he is about to become the highest paid player in the NFL when he hits the free agent market.

Years from now, when anthropologists are studying the Washington Redskins, they will wonder, among many things, why the Redskins were not able to keep the 29-year-old quarterback in their own building who threw for 13,176 yards, 89 touchdowns and 36 interceptions over the past three years while not missing a single start.

They may have replaced him with his long-lost “older” brother in Alex Smith.

Here is how Kansas City Star columnist Sam Mellinger described Smith in a November article: “Smith is extraordinarily intelligent. Not just ’athlete’ intelligent, either. He earned an economics degree in 2 1/2 years, and runs what’s been called a model charity. But there are times it appears he struggles to make blink-quick decisions. When he makes the right diagnosis before the snap, it works. When he’s surprised, it doesn’t.”

Sound familiar? Not a description of “special,” is it?

Thom Loverro hosts his weekly podcast “Cigars & Curveballs” Wednesdays available on iTunes, Google Play and the reVolver podcast network.