The San Francisco 49ers are a proud organization. Winners of 5 Super Bowls, 4 in the 80’s behind Joe Montana, and of course in 1994 with Steve Young, with his “monkey off his back” Super Bowl. They are a franchise that expects to win; they had been the West coast power.

Until recently, of course.

Since 1999, the Niners have only won 10 or more games in a season 2 times, made the playoffs only twice over the last 12 years. And since 2000, have a lousy winning percentage of only .425(not even including this year’s shabby season). What happened to the proud Niners of San Fran?

They, like all teams went through a rebuilding period, which all teams must go through at one point or another, they have gone through frequent QB changes, including Jeff Garcia, Tim Rattay, Trent Dilfer and Shaun Hill since 2003. None of which seemed to be the answer to lead the team to the big boy standards the Niners have expected over the years.

In 2005, they drafted QB Alex Smith, out of Utah, with the overall 1st pick of the draft. Bypassing Aaron Rodgers and even Jason Campbell from Auburn. Some were shocked, some were open-minded with the decision, Smith came in, at a slender 6-4, and the impending duty of being the man to lead the struggling Niners back to glory. It would take some time, but they had their guy to build around.

5 years later, the Niners have gone 31-49 in that span (not including this season), never made the playoffs, and are questioning what to do with Mr. Smith #1. He has put up disappointing numbers in his career, 8583 yards passing, 46 TD, 52 int and a miserable QB rating of 70.2.

Mr. Troy Smith was drafted in 2007 by the Baltimore Ravens out of Ohio State in the 5th round. He was touted as being the athletic QB who could move around in the pocket and make something happen off the run, even though his size was a factor. He was competing against horrendous Kyle Boller and veteran Steve McNair for the QB slot in Baltimore. In his 3 years in Baltimore, he started only 2 games, winning one.

San Fran has since picked up Mr. Smith #2, at the QB3 spot. Alex was their starter, doing his thing in 2010 with lousy numbers yet again. The fans wanted change, they craved change. To the point where they began to chant for second string QB David Carr to play. He got his chance and was bad at best. The Niners came into 2010 season with high hopes, with a favorable schedule against the down NFC West, they had Singletary as head Coach, he was leading his pack into battle every week.

Talented TE Vernon Davis, and 2nd year WR Michael Crabtree, showing promise, and hard runner Frank Gore (since injured), LB monsters Patrick Willis and Takeo Spikes, a few nice offensive line draft picks, the Niners were ready for the next step.

Troy Smith has since replaced Alex as the starter in San Fran, and they are 3-1 with him at QB1. He has been solid, throwing 3 TDs and 207 yards a game. Troy may not be built like the model QB of today, but he brings something else to the team, a decent completion rate and some scrambling ability.

I would keep an eye on this kid, he might not be the “chosen one”, but he may be the right one for the job.