More than a decade later, Mike Nolan is still explaining the decision behind not drafting one of the league’s best quarterbacks.
The ex-San Francisco 49ers head coach said Tuesday on NFL HQ that the team considered Alex Smith the safe pick over the “cocky” and “arrogant” Aaron Rodgers with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 draft.
“Basically, we thought in the long term that Alex Smith would be the better choice than Aaron,” Nolan said. “It was one of those, maybe, paralysis by analysis. We had so much time to think about it.
“We put a lot of stock in changing Aaron’s throwing style. We also got caught up a little bit in that Alex was so mobile. That was a good thing. But in the end, we felt Alex would be the better long-time guy. Obviously, we were wrong in that thought process.”
Rodgers’ cockiness would help him to become a Super Bowl champion in 2011 and a two-time winner of the MVP award. Meanwhile, Smith lost the starting job in San Francisco and was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs, where he has become a really good, but not great, starting quarterback.
“So you can say, ‘Why didn’t you take [Rodgers] to begin with?’ Because that’s really what your best quarterbacks look like,” Nolan said. “They aren’t very pleasing. They aren’t very safe.”
“And as time has showed, that’s really how Alex plays. He doesn’t turn the ball over. He’s very secure with the ball. And on the other hand, Aaron is a slinger. He’s all over the place and makes great, big plays. Obviously, he’ll be a Hall of Fame player one day.”
Needless to say, Nolan was wrong to let Rodgers’ cockiness get in the way of drafting a really, really good player, probably one of the best to ever play.
“We would’ve chosen Aaron,” Nolan said when asked what he would do differently.
A similar decision awaits the Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles in this year’s draft as they attempt to pick between the best two quarterbacks in Cal’s Jared Goff and North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz.
