Alex Smith returns to where it all began, leading Chiefs against 49ers

All week, quarterback Alex Smith has been dealing with the specter of his return to San Francisco, where the Chiefs will face the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday.

However, it would have been hard to tell if you didn’t already know, given the way Smith patiently swatted down question after question about the looming showdown against the coach that benched him (Jim Harbaugh) and the quarterback that replaced him (Colin Kaepernick) in 2012.

Does Smith have any bitterness toward the 49ers?

“I don’t, I don’t at all,” Smith said. “I was so excited about this opportunity when it happened.”

How will you be received by 49ers fans?

“I haven’t thought about it, and I guess (I have) no idea,” Smith said. “I guess we’ll find out.”

And on and on it went, with the smooth 30-year-old rarely betraying his typically friendly persona.

Understand, Smith is a 10-year NFL veteran with enough smarts to earn an economics degree from the University of Utah in less than three years, so there aren’t many questions he can’t, or won’t, answer. Few Chiefs better navigate the balance between saying the right things and giving illuminating responses.

But it is, perhaps, revealing that there is one question Smith would not answer this week. A hint that maybe, just maybe, he hasn’t exactly let bygones be bygones.

Did the 49ers, 2-2, make the right choice in the guy they kept as their starting quarterback?

“Yeah, I’m not even going to answer that, man,” Smith said with a chuckle. “I haven’t thought about it, and at this point, it’s not even relevant.”

In a way, that’s true. In a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league, two years can feel like a lifetime.

But the fact remains that Smith and Kaepernick — the two most affected by Smith’s trade to Kansas City — will touch the ball the most come Sunday, and for all parties involved, a win will offer vindication, at least for a little while.

If Smith indeed feels that way, he would never say it before the game. He is a smart man, and a smart man would probably pay attention to how Chiefs coach Andy Reid handled his return to Philadelphia last season, a journey that ended with a 26-16 Chiefs victory in week three.

“All that stuff, going home, that doesn’t mean anything,” Reid said. “Everybody talks about it, but that’s not what’s real. The real is getting into the grind and getting ready to play.”

There are many reasons to suspect Smith has long been preparing for this moment.

For one, it did not take the Chiefs, 2-2, very long to witness Smith’s commitment to perfecting his craft once they acquired him for two second-round draft picks in March 2013.

“I joke about this,” Reid says. “But when he first got here, I couldn’t get him out of the building. I told him, ‘Before you ever get a chance to put on a uniform, we’re going to be on probation because there are hour limits you can be in this building.’ I’d have to kick him out every day.

“He’s the first guy in, last guy out, and he’s maintained that through his time here. (A) relentless worker.”

Smith says there’s a reason for his diligence.

“Because of everything that happened during the course of my career, I was so much more appreciative of how fragile the opportunity is to get to start and play in this game,” Smith said. “I was full-go on it and going to do everything I could to take advantage of it and run with it and not look back.”

Smith, a former No. 1 overall pick in 2005, was hardened by some rough years in San Francisco before Harbaugh’s arrival in 2011. But he quietly became one of the league’s most efficient quarterbacks under his new coach ... until he was Wally Pipped by the speedy, strong-armed Kaepernick 10 games into the 2012 season.

Even now, Kaepernick marvels at how gracious Smith, who served as a mentor of sorts, was during the whole ordeal. The then-24-year-old replacement led the 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance.

“He was one of the classiest people I’ve been around with the way he handled that situation and the way he continued to help me after I started playing,” Kaepernick said.

Since the trade, Smith and Kaepernick say they talk to each other occasionally, though neither could elaborate on the last time they spoke.

“I’ll talk to him briefly before the game,” Kaepernick said. “But we both know it’s a business trip.”

Harbaugh knows that, too.

“Alex and I have had this conversation before about the going up and slapping each other on the rear end, hugging before the game,” Harbaugh said. “When we were both on the 49ers, we’ve had this conversation … we’re both in the mindset that we wouldn’t be into that.

Smith, for his part, said he didn’t remember that conversation. He also said he has not had much communication with Harbaugh since leaving the Bay Area.

“I have not talked to coach in quite a while,” Smith said.

Harbaugh, meanwhile, has been very complimentary of Smith, both this week and in the past.

Before last season, he even told Reid that the Chiefs coach was “going to love Alex Smith,” words that have proven to be prophetic; this looks to be the rare trade that has worked out for both teams.

Last season, Smith threw for a career-best 3,313 yards and 23 touchdowns in leading the resurgent Chiefs to an 11-5 record and a Wild Card berth, a nine-game turnaround from the year before.

The 49ers, meanwhile, went 12-4 under Kaepernick and reached the NFC Championship Game, almost knocking off the eventual Super Bowl-champion Seattle Seahawks in the process.

With some trade magic, 49ers general manager Trent Baalke also managed to parlay the second-round picks he received from the Chiefs into two second-rounders, two third-rounders and ex-Bills receiver Stevie Johnson.

Chiefs general manager John Dorsey, a scout at heart, would be lying if he said he did not miss his second-round picks during the last two drafts.

“That’s human nature,” Dorsey said. “But you know, in the back of your head, that you got a pretty good quarterback there, too.”

That’s why Dorsey insists he would do the trade over again. For those picks, he’s gotten a valuable leader and distributor, an unselfish point guard for his coach’s spread-it-around offense.

“It’s a quarterback-driven league, and you better have a trigger-man that you trust,” Dorsey said. “With the quality of coaching he was going to get, with the stability here, I just thought it was a perfect match.”

Smith, for his part, couldn’t be happier with his new home. He’s been on fire the last three weeks, completing 72 percent of his passes for 689 yards, six touchdowns and zero interceptions.

That’s exactly the kind of output he envisioned when he joined forces with Reid.

“Just the diversity of the offense, all the things we can throw at a defense, the personnel, spreading the ball around, getting guys in space,” Smith said. “That’s what we were doing last year when we really got in a roll.”

The goal is to keep that going Sunday against his former team. And if you ask his coach, the “block-it-out” philosophy Reid displayed against Philadelphia last season might be the best way to ensure that happens.

It appears Reid’s quarterback has been listening, too. If his answer to the question about whether the 49ers made the right choice betrays him, so does his grin-and-answer when asked about Reid’s return to Philadelphia last season.

“(You couldn’t tell) all week,” Smith said of Reid. “He just kind of set that example … you knew (he cared), though.

“You just know human behavior ... it’s a little different (game).”

This story was originally published October 3, 2014 at 12:41 AM with the headline "Alex Smith returns to where it all began, leading Chiefs against 49ers."