Aldon "99 Problems" Smith

[Wrigheyes4MVP]

Idk what is being argued here, but JJ Watt is better than Aldon Smith at football...thats all I know.

[Superdude]

I think he can get it, and I think he is one of the top 3 pass rushers in the league right now.

[Superdude]

Idk what is being argued here, but JJ Watt is better than Aldon Smith at football...thats all I know.

Overall at defense? Yes
At rushing the QB? Eh, debatable

[Labgrownmangoat]

Aldon Smith is 3 sacks from tying Michael Strahan's single season sack record. He has 3 games to play. Does anybody outside of the bay area have an inkling of how good this guy is? Seems to me he's still not talked about as being one of the elite passrushers in the game. If somebody like JJ watt or Jason Pierre Paul were approaching the record ESPN would be all over it. Because Northern CA is not a huge media market in ESPN's eyes it seems the only time I hear about Smith being a premier passrusher is when the niners play in PrimeTime and Tirico or Gruden are raving about his skillset, Strength, and Speed.

So my question is, 1 Is he the Premier pass rusher in football?

Who cares about the most impressive pass-rushing performance in decades? He's far away from the east coast. We have much more important 3rd-string QBs from non-playoff teams to obsess over.

[Kelly Gruber]

You can blame Justin Smith for cheating or whatever else you want, but the fact is that Aldon Smith is just too fast and shifty for a lot of linemen to handle. If he gets some daylight or builds up some speed, he's gone, and the QB is down. It's his pure athletic talent that is getting these sacks along with Justin's hard work.

You can discredit him all you want, this kid is just learning the game, and that's a scary thought.

[rapjuicer06]

No but a multitude of his sacks, Justin Smith is right there with him and for some reason they give the WHOLE sack to A. Smith.

That is blown soooo far out its hard for non 49er fans to know what the truth actually is. Most of Aldon's sacks come because Aldon beat his guy. Straight up. Does it help having Justin Smith? Hell yea it helps. Is Justin Smith the main reason Aldon has all of his sacks? **** no. Why opposing teams block Aldon 1-1 is ridiculous....He beats his guy more often than not, and if Aldon was playing this much last year and playing like this...he'd be over 20+ sacks right now. The qb's are getting rid of the ball with in 2 seconds when playing the 49ers. Which is why the 49ers pass defense is so damn good. 2nd overall in the league I do believe, short passes and excellent tackling team leads to not many YAC. If a Qb has to hold onto the ball 3 seconds or more, Aldon Smith either gets a pressure or hits the Qb.


But the argument between who's the better player between Aldon and Watt...its not comparable really. Watt is a freak of nature, there is no denying that. He does soooo much for his defense. But if people are going to negate Aldon because he has Justin Smith, then you have to take away from Watt for having Barwin outside of him as well.

Oh and last time I checked, the LT is usually the best lineman on teams olines, and thats who Aldon is going up against a vast majority of the time. He deserves more credit than "Oh, Justin Smith is holding the offensive line for Aldon to get to the Qb." ****ing ridiculous

[RedandGold_35]

Not sure how people keep turning anything pertaining to Watt/Miller/Smith into a comparison of who is better overall among the three. The OP asks is Smith the premier pass rusher in the league, that is all.

[JoeDirt05]

It's happened in more than just one game, sorry to tell you. Against the better LTs sure it doesn't happen, but how many Jake Long and Joe Thomas types are out there?

I was making a point you cant use a video to say you win an argument when the video is against the back up LT when one of the top 3 LT's in the game is injured

[JoeDirt05]

Not sure how people keep turning anything pertaining to Watt/Miller/Smith into a comparison of who is better overall among the three. The OP asks is Smith the premier pass rusher in the league, that is all.

that directly relates to Watt and Miller as well because to be the premier pass rusher you have to be better then those guys hence the debate

[rapjuicer06]

I was making a point you cant use a video to say you win an argument when the video is against the back up LT when one of the top 3 LT's in the game is injured

Ok...he's done that to about every LT he's gone up against. It has a little to do with strength for the LT..but it's more so that Aldon catches them off guard when he uses speed rush to get around them then he comes at them with a bull rush...he does it alllllll the time

[dee279]

You still don't get it but whatever.

Lol haveing to explain too hard. Some people just dont get it.

[BKLYNpigeon]

Rams fans hating on the 49ers because their St. Louis Cardinals Crumbled against the San Francisco Giants World Series Champions!

[Jets Fan Tdot]

Aldon Smith is 3 sacks from tying Michael Strahan's single season sack record. He has 3 games to play. Does anybody outside of the bay area have an inkling of how good this guy is? Seems to me he's still not talked about as being one of the elite passrushers in the game. If somebody like JJ watt or Jason Pierre Paul were approaching the record ESPN would be all over it. Because Northern CA is not a huge media market in ESPN's eyes it seems the only time I hear about Smith being a premier passrusher is when the niners play in PrimeTime and Tirico or Gruden are raving about his skillset, Strength, and Speed.

So my question is, 1 Is he the Premier pass rusher in football?

I do - and i'm pulling for him.

[natelpete]

Don't the numbers speak for themselves?

[WadeKobe]

I'm sorry Wade but stopping the pass rush to bat down a pass is not pass rush anymore the key to that is he STOPs rushing the passer. It would fall into the pass defense category. That is why in the nfl stat book it goes as a pass defensed. He is 8th in the NFL in that. He is the only non-defensive back in the top 40 in.

You all are trying way too hard. Again, when rushing the passer, even if we go with your analogy and we agree he is no longer "rushing the passer", then his intelligence and ability to stop his pass rush which is failing in order to make a better play as opposed to continuing a failed rush makes him a smarter and, therefore, better, pass-rusher. This is football 101.

Same with Norm's "screen" objection. If a player regularly cannot read screens and pursues the QB in pass-rush recklessly, getting burned, while another player consistently reads it well, pulls up his pass rush, and makes a better play....

It would appear that in both those situations, the other player is a worse pass-rusher bc of his lack of intelligence and ability to switch gears and make the right play while in pass rush.

This whole idea that rushing the passer only applies to trying to beat a block to get the the QB is just plain false. It's a nice attempt to concentrate sexy statistics into one category so we can compartmentalize sexy stats from less sexy stats, but it's still false. Again, nice try, but it is nonsense.