Quarterback Alex Smith, who won the 2020 NFL Comeback Player of the Year award by helping the Washington Football Team win the NFC East title, has been released by the franchise, it was announced Friday.
Washington coach Ron Rivera said in a statement that the team granted Smith’s request to be released after the two met this week.
“I had the chance to meet Alex Smith this week and we had a very honest and genuine discussion,” Rivera said in the team’s statement. “We had the opportunity to think about the 2020 season and talk about moving forward to next year. After that meeting we decided it would be best for both sides to move forward and we will ask Alex to to be released, to comply.
“I want to thank Alex for his contributions over the past year. He made such a big impression on our young squad and his leadership was one of the key factors in our success at the end of the season and in making the playoffs for the first since 2015. Everyone here in Washington wishes Alex and his family the best for the future and values everything he has given to our organization. ”
A real inspiration.
Thanks for everything, Alex. pic.twitter.com/LNtfZI7h6i
– Washington Football Team (@WashingtonNFL) March 5, 2021
Washington, which went 7-9 in 2020, wants to upgrade to quarterback this off-season. Since Smith turned 37 in May and would count $ 24.4 million on the salary cap, a release became inevitable.
The move will save Washington $ 14.9 million at the cap as Smith becomes a free agent.
Smith had two years to go on a contract he signed after Washington traded for him in 2018. He made it clear to Washington that he wanted to keep playing.
But his tenure in Washington is determined by the fractured right fibula and shin he sustained in November 2018 and the subsequent comeback with his first game action on October 11, 2020. In between, Smith underwent 17 surgeries to fight an infection and opted for it. not to. have his leg amputated.
Washington partially left him on the roster because he was too expensive to release. But it was also uncertain whether he had finished playing. While many doubted he would get it done – both inside and outside the organization – some people with the franchise often said, “If anyone can do it, Alex can.”
Still, after an ESPN documentary aired last spring, some members of the organization wondered if a Doctor would even release Smith to play, but he passed all the tests and got permission. At every milestone, Smith had to prove that he could take the next step: being on the field for 11-on-11 work; make the schedule; play; starting.
He did all of that, and after starting quarterback Dwayne Haskins was benched and Kyle Allen injured, Smith started six games in 2020. Washington went 5-1 in those starts. During his three years there, Washington went 11-5 in games Smith started and 6-27 with someone else at the quarterback.
However, Smith told GQ Magazine that his comeback threw a “ wrench ” into the team’s plans and that he felt unwelcome by the organization last summer.
“ They didn’t see it, didn’t want me there, didn’t want me to be part of it, didn’t want me to be on the team, the squad, didn’t want to give me a chance, ” Smith told the magazine. Mind you, it was a whole new regime, they came in; I am like the leftovers and I am hurt and I am this liability.
‘No, they didn’t want me there. At that point, as you can imagine, everything I had been through, I couldn’t have cared any less. Like it or not, I give this is a shot at this point. “
Smith hasn’t said for sure he will return for the 2021 season, but sources told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler he wanted to keep playing.
Smith’s worth went beyond his stats last season – he threw six touchdowns against eight interceptions. His calming demeanor, experience and leadership proved valuable to his young teammates. Washington started rookie Antonio Gibson back down, and of the top five wide receivers, only one came in last season with more than 58 career receptions – journeyman Dontrelle Inman. If Washington wasn’t going to get a lot of production, it would at least need someone who could manage the game, like Smith.
Smith sustained a bone bruise in his calf during the first half of a December 13 win against the San Francisco 49ers, preventing him from playing in the second half. He missed the next two games – both losses – and struggled partially in the season finale due to the injury. Smith lobbied to play in Washington’s playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he wasn’t mobile enough for the coaches’ wishes and was inactive.
Smith, the No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft by the 49ers, has started 167 career games. His team’s record in those games is 99-67-1. He spent seven years with the 49ers, who traded him to the Kansas City Chiefs. Smith spent five years with the Chiefs; they were 1-4 in the playoffs with him. Kansas City drafted Patrick Mahomes in the first round in 2017 and after that season traded Smith to Washington in exchange for cornerback Kendall Fuller and a third-round pick.
Washington recently extended quarterback Taylor Heinicke to a two-year deal with incentives making it worth up to $ 8.75 million. Allen is an exclusive rights-free agent and is expected to return. The team also has Steven Montez, who signed as an undrafted free agent last off-season.