Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers.
As recently detailed in the new Rodgers biography, they competed for the privilege of being the first overall pick in the 2005 draft. Monday Night Football will include during the pregame show an interview of one by the other.
Smith, who now works for ESPN, sat down with Rodgers. The interview comes nearly 20 years after Rodgers badly wanted the 49ers to pick him. They went with Smith instead.
The clip posted by Adam Schefter of ESPN focuses on the events of the first Monday night of the 2023 season, when Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles tendon on the fourth play from scrimmage.
In the locker room, Rodgers told Smith he thought his career was over.
It wasn’t. At times, it looked as if his season might not be over. Now, he’s back and ready to go.
He faces a real challenge. Three games between September 9 and 19. After taking only four snaps since January 2023.
And the season begins in the home of the team that didn’t pick him, way back when. While he likely still wouldn’t be playing for the 49ers (then again, who knows?), the past two decades in the NFL would have gone very differently if San Francisco had guessed right.
So why did the 49ers take Smith? There were concerns about how Rodgers held the ball before throwing it. There were concerns about the history of players tutored by his college coach, Jeff Tedford. There were concerns about Rodgers’s personality, given that Smith was at all times respectful and deferential.
Regardless, it’s another example of how inexact the pre-draft science is.
