Top 70 Alex Smith Quotes

As a quarterback, when you do have a three-and-out or things do not go right, you are the first one to know. You know more than anyone out there what went wrong and what needs to be corrected and don’t necessarily always need to hear it when you come off to the sideline.

You get a taste of playing in the playoffs and what that’s like, and it’s a completely different world. You get a taste in those meaningful games. You get that taste, and you can’t get it out. You want more.

Obviously, college was an unbelievable experience.

I don’t measure myself in my contract in terms of what I’m making.

Most of the time, you’re just trying to be the point guard out there based on the play call and the defense that you’re getting; that really dictates where the football goes.

I think that’s the great thing about the NFL. You’re out there, and there are very few perennials. It’s a battle every single year. You can go first to worst, worst to first.

When you’re a quarterback, and you’re dropping back, I can’t watch what the receivers are doing.

In the pocket, you do have some protections, but you get out of the pocket, and defenders’ eyes get big. Sometimes you learn that the hard way.

You only have one brain. There’s no replacement surgery for that.

To a lot of people, I might just be the guy who went No. 1 in the draft. Or the guy who lost his job to Colin Kaepernick. Or the guy who helped turn a 2-14 Chiefs team into a back-to-back division champ… but then couldn’t put them over the top.

Dead silence is so much more foreign to me than people screaming at me, good or bad.

You look at the best players in the league, the best players at quarterback – I mean Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, the top names – none of those guys are throwing it through a brick wall. They’ll have touch.

We can never fully plan our future, so don’t try.

No one’s taking quarterbacks, for the most part, in the first round that haven’t had a lot of success.

I really have fun playing golf.

When you take shots downfield, you want to be good at them.

You’re never trying to have three-and-outs; I don’t care what offense you’re playing.

It’s easy when you’re always winning.

Winning is all that does matter.

It’s far different aging as a quarterback than aging as a tight end.

As a quarterback, you certainly don’t want to hamstring your team in any way because – I know this more than anyone – you rely so heavily on those playmakers around you.

When I got drafted, I was a spread-option quarterback. It was, ‘OK, you’ve got to get under center, throw to the fullback, throw to the tight end. You’ve got to learn to be a pro quarterback.’ And there was a learning curve there, and I did have to learn some of that.

As a QB, it’s a team game, and you’re all out there in it.

We can only control how we react and how we respond, and that complex but so simple idea helped me survive.

I love Kansas City. I love the coaching staff, the players.

It’s one thing as a quarterback to sit there and warm up. And there’s one thing to throw routes. And there’s another thing when you drop back in the pocket and, when a guy comes open, to really be able to urgently – bam – all of a sudden. That guy’s open; your body has to do what your mind’s telling you.

I think you have to enjoy the wins. If you’re not enjoying the process, there’s a problem. You’re not doing it for all the right reasons.

You’re the quarterback, if you lose games… it’s the head coach and the quarterback. If you’re not winning, it’s on you.

It’s football. Guys get hurt all the time.

I don’t feel like I have to prove myself to anybody any longer.

For anyone that’s reached the NFL, especially top picks, you just come from success.

Accept what you cannot control.

I don’t know if there were many pros for me playing early. I feel like I dug myself a pretty deep hole that rookie year.

No quarterback goes out there and plays well on his own.

It is healthy to have competition and intense competition, and then, when you walk away from it, you are still teammates, and you play the same position and that we can still put the team first.

That’s a special time, to get drafted.

Playing quarterback, you rely on everybody. Everybody impacts you.

You play for your teammates; you play for each other.

Obviously, flagrant things have to be called. There are rules. You have got to play to the rules, no question.

To continue to fight, not get frustrated, to stay together and find a way – I think that’s important. I think good teams do that.

You’re never going to make everybody happy; there are always going to be people that, yeah, aren’t with you. That’s the nature of sports.

There are a lot of peripheral things that you have to deal with in this league, and I dealt with a lot of them when I came in. It’s everything from being on your own to facing the media.

For me, it’s about winning games. I’m trying to score more points than the other team. I don’t really care how we do it.

Game day can be emotional, and there are a lot of ups and downs throughout a game, but as a quarterback, you have to be able to see the bigger picture, steady that ship, get all the guys focused in on the task at hand, and keep the thing moving.

There is a strike zone in the pocket that’s very clear. Can’t hit QBs low, can’t hit them high.

Certainly, there were tough times, but no, you can’t go back and change it. So, why dwell on it?

I definitely grew up a Chargers’ fan.

When I watch good friends play, it’s almost worse when you’re watching, because you have zero impact: you have zero hand in what’s going on. When I’m playing, you don’t have that because I’m involved in it. I have some kind of say in what’s going on.

Failures and setbacks are inevitable for all of us.

Instincts and fundamentals take over sometimes.

More often than not as a quarterback, your performance is a reflection of the guys around you. I’ve been fortunate to be around some pretty good guys.

The quarterback position gets a lot of attention.

I think the quarterback position, moreso than in all of sports, no other position compares – you rely on so many people to do your job.

When the guys are playing well around you, you look good.

As a quarterback, especially when I come off to the sideline, I am trying to get things corrected, trying to get things figured out and move on to the next series.

I enjoy the challenge of coming together with my teammates and playing well for them.

You love playing on a national stage – anytime you get these games. The Thursday ones are tough; I have a mixed opinion. I think if you win them, they’re awesome because you get another little bye week in there, so to speak. They’re tough on the quick turnaround.

Sometimes when you’ve only got a few snaps, guys try to do too much and try to make too much happen.

When I was young, I just tried to please everybody.

I carried around a lot of weight and anxiety – expectations of being a top draft pick and fulfilling those. It was really burdensome and not fun. Stressful. I had to go through some things before I finally turned that around and got back to playing for the right reasons.

I put a lot of pressure on myself. Sometimes you are your own worst enemy.

Quarterback play starts with your eyes and feet. Those have to be in the right place and have to be on time.

This is the ultimate team sport, and I really feel that the quarterback position is the epitome of that.

The real football starts in training camp.

You have to prove yourself year in and year out, and if you can’t get the job done, every team is going to go and try and find somebody else that can.

When I graduated from Utah, I was headed into the biggest job interview of my life, the NFL Draft.

There are so many good things, great things that go on in this league.

I know guys respect work ethic, and they respect the guys that are invested and committed.

It wasn’t until I stopped worrying about my own validation and finally refocused my energy on things I could actually change that I finally grew as a person and as a professional.

Golf is so different than football, in many ways. I think that’s why I enjoy it.