Smith details pressures of being No. 1 pick with 49ers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Former 49ers quarterback Alex Smith entered the NFL with the weight of the world on his shoulders, an experience he opened up about while addressing the crowd during Thursday’s Dwight Clark Legacy Series event at the California Theatre in San Jose.
San Francisco selected Smith No. 1 overall in the 2005 NFL Draft, with San Francisco counting on the Utah product to resurrect a once proud franchise in the midst of a rapid decline. Smith detailed how much pressure came with not only being a No. 1 overall pick, but also following in the footsteps of a pair of Hall of Fame quarterbacks.
“It was unique … there had never been a franchise to have a Joe [Montana] and Steve [Young], like that had never happened,” Smith explained. “Jeff [Garcia] set the franchise record for yards, so he had carried it on. And all of a sudden to be the No. 1 pick, and as a 20 year old those were things I never dealt with. I had one college scholarship offer. I had been flying under the radar my entire life, and now all of a sudden [there were] huge expectations put upon me.”
Smith revealed how much pressure he put on himself in an attempt to live up to the legendary quarterbacks who preceeded him in San Francisco.
“I felt like I had to be Joe Montana, Steve Young and Peyton Manning as the No. 1 pick for the San Francisco 49ers,” Smith detailed. “It was a lot. I felt like I had to be perfect. I struggled with that my first few years, walking onto a field on eggshells. Trying not to make any mistakes. I got to be perfect, it was every day at practice, in the meeting rooms, kind of became my own worst enemy.
“As anybody can imagine, you try to do anything let alone play quarterback as a rookie, that’s certainly a recipe for disaster. At the time it wasn’t something that got talked about a lot. I didn’t get to play with a veteran quarterback early on so there wasn’t necessarily that resource there. I…
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