2011 NFC Championship: San Francisco 49ers and the One That Got Away

January 21, 2011   ·   Vincent Mora   ·   Jump to comments

With Aaron Rodgers about to play in the NFC Championship, perhaps the most important game of his life so far, one can't help but wonder what could have been had the San Francisco 49ers selected homegrown Rodgers and not Alex Smith in the 2005 NFL draft.
It pains the Bay Area to watch a local boy lead the "wrong team" into the playoffs and on to the cusp of the Super Bowl.
Just why did Scot McCloughan do this to us? Why did he have to choose the wrong guy?
It is very easy to look at things now almost six years later and make this determination. The Packers got themselves a franchise quarterback, and the team that passed up on him is headed into 2011 with no real quarterback option.
But what has been the difference between Rodgers and Smith? Was there a way 49ers management could have avoided all this? 
Begin by looking at their college careers.
Smith's college career is very simple to analyze. He was 24-1 as a starter at Utah. Bottom line, he was ...

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