5 potential teams Alex Smith could play for in 2018

The best season of Alex Smith’s career ended Saturday with arguably the toughest game of his career.

Statistically, he played fine against the Tennessee Titans, completing 24 of his 33 passes for 264 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. But Smith had just 33 yards in the second half, allowing the Titans to come back from an 18-point deficit to win 22-21.

It definitely wasn’t all his fault. The Chiefs inexplicably stopped giving the ball to Kareem Hunt (who finished with just 11 carries), Smith was without tight end Travis Kelce in the second half, and Kansas City wasn’t helped by some questionable calls made by referee Jeff Triplette.

He’s had worse outings, but never has he blown a better opportunity to rewrite the narrative that he’s a quarterback only capable of winning in the regular season.

It was the fourth trip to the postseason in Smith’s five years in Kansas City, but the Chiefs are just 1-4 in playoff games during that span. He probably won’t get a chance to lead the team to the playoffs for a fifth time.

Smith told reporters he hopes he’ll be back with the Chiefs in 2018, but that seems unlikely. Smith carries a $20.6 million cap hit and with his replacement, Patrick Mahomes, showing all kinds of promise, it would make sense for Kansas City to part ways with the 33-year-old quarterback and begin a new era with the 22-year-old first-round pick.

A trade would make plenty of sense for Kansas City, and there are a lot of teams that could use an efficient quarterback like Smith. Here are a few potential landing spots:

Why it makes sense: It sounds like it’d be Smith’s worst nightmare, but it might not be that bad. Seriously.

The strength of the Browns’ offense was its offensive line with Joel Bitonio, J.C. Tretter, and Kevin Zeitler in the interior. Joe Thomas missed the majority of the season with a torn triceps, but the 10-time Pro Bowl left tackle will likely be back in action, so long as he chooses to return in 2018.

If they had Smith at the helm, the Browns could presumably avoid the multitude of turnovers that happened with DeShone Kizer struggling through his rookie season in 2017 with 22 interceptions.

Cleveland will probably want to use one of its two top-four draft picks to take a quarterback of the future, but Kizer’s difficult season is all the evidence the team needs to not throw another young passer into the fire.

Former Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins is down with the idea of Smith in Cleveland:

But it really only matters if new Browns general manager John Dorsey likes the plan. He spent four seasons as the Chiefs’ GM and was the man in charge when Kansas City traded for Smith, and that helped the team turn around quickly. Don’t be surprised if he follows the same blueprint at his new job.

Why it doesn’t make sense: The Browns have racked up a lot of draft capital and have the chance to really reshape the roster with two picks in the top four and another three selections in the second round.

It’s tough to project the trade value of Smith, but Cleveland would be giving up a chance to add young talent to its roster so it could instead acquire a quarterback who turns 34 in May, and he would come with a huge salary to boot.

If the Browns want to get a veteran who can start while they groom a young quarterback, there are other options who won’t cost as much to acquire. Maybe AJ McCarron, who could reunite with his former offensive coordinator Hue Jackson, now Cleveland’s head coach. McCarron could become a free agent this offseason and was nearly traded to Cleveland during the 2017 season.

Why it makes sense: The defense has led the way in recent years for the Broncos, and while the team allowed way more points than usual in 2017, that was largely due to 34 turnovers by the Denver offense.

Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, and Brock Osweiler all got a shot to start for the Broncos, and not one of the three quarterbacks finished the season with more touchdowns than interceptions.

It’s a shame because Denver has a strong stable of receivers with Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders, but the pair only combined for seven touchdowns because of the struggling quarterbacks.

If president of football operations John Elway wants to use the No. 5 pick in the 2018 NFL draft to take a quarterback, it would make sense. Yet, getting Smith could do more to help the team turn into a winner right away, and Elway could instead use the pick to address another position.

Why it doesn’t make sense: The three quarterbacks who started in Denver may not be the future, but they would’ve had a better shot at playing well if the team’s offensive line wasn’t a disaster.

Maybe it’ll be better in 2018 with Garett Bolles in his second season and Menelik Watson returning from injury, but for now, it looks like a unit that could use some serious work. Putting Smith behind that line might not work out as well as the Broncos hope.

But the biggest reason it doesn’t make much sense is that the Broncos play in the AFC West. Unless the Chiefs think Smith is a grenade ready to explode, dealing him to Denver just hurts Kansas City’s chances at getting to the playoffs.

This union really only makes sense if Smith hits the open market.

Why this makes sense: Defense? Check. Running game? Check. The biggest problem in Jacksonville is that Blake Bortles is wildly inconsistent and has 64 interceptions in 62 career regular season games.

The Jaguars picked up the fifth-year option for Bortles, which will pay the quarterback about $19 million in 2018. But Jacksonville could cut bait with no ramifications and go after a replacement to complete a team that has one of the NFL’s most impressive rosters aside from the quarterback position.

Bortles nearly cost the Jaguars their first playoff game in a decade, managing just 87 yards passing against the Buffalo Bills and forcing the defense to lead the way in a 10-3 win.

If a trip to the Super Bowl doesn’t happen for Jacksonville, odds are strong that the play of Bortles will be a reason why.

Why this doesn’t make sense: Teams that were a disaster in 2017, like the Browns and Broncos, could use a player like Smith to help turn things around. But is he really the guy to take a team that’s already a playoff contender and push it over the top to become a Super Bowl champion?

He had plenty of opportunities to make noise in the postseason with Kansas City, but the team consistently laid an egg in January.

Maybe Smith could efficiently lead the Jaguars to a great regular season record, but executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin might be better off going after his former quarterback, Eli Manning, or taking a rookie quarterback to be the future of the franchise.

Why this makes sense: It’s time for a new era of football in Arizona. Not because the Cardinals crashed and burned during an 8-8 season, but because it ended with retirements for coach Bruce Arians and quarterback Carson Palmer. It’s possible that Larry Fitzgerald could hang up the cleats too.

With defensive stars like Patrick Peterson, Chandler Jones, and Tyrann Mathieu, the Cardinals finished No. 6 in total defense.

But the offense was bogged down by the loss of All-Pro running back David Johnson, who suffered a season-ending wrist injury in Week 1. Without Johnson, the Cardinals were No. 30 in yards rushing and No. 31 in yards per carry.

With Johnson back in 2018 and a lot of young talent on defense, Arizona could get back on track, but for now, there’s nobody at quarterback.

When Palmer went down with an arm injury, the Cardinals switched between the uninspiring duo of Drew Stanton and Blaine Gabbert. With Smith in Arizona, the Cardinals could get back to being a playoff team right away.

Why this doesn’t make sense: Even before Palmer got injured, the Cardinals’ offense struggled all year. Losing Johnson hurt, but the biggest issue in Arizona was the team’s awful offensive line play.

Like Denver, the Cardinals need to invest heavily on the offensive line. But unlike the Broncos, Arizona has even fewer players up front to feel good about and less salary-cap space to address those problems.

Trading for Smith would send away a draft pick that could be used to help add talent, and it would bring with it a price tag that would put the Cardinals in a precarious spot with the salary cap.

Perhaps discount shopping for a one-year Band-Aid at quarterback is the better route.

Why this makes sense: Smith was fantastic in 2017 with 26 touchdowns, five interceptions and an NFL-best 104.7 passer rating. Do the Chiefs really want to ship him away and turn the keys over to a 22 year old who played in just one regular-season game?

“Best quarterback in football,” Chiefs offensive tackle Mitchell Schwartz said after the team’s playoff loss, via James Palmer of NFL Network. “You know the numbers bear that out. That’s the feeling we get when we’re out there.”

If the Chiefs want to turn to Mahomes, it would make sense, but Smith could be one hell of a backup for the team and may be amenable to a pay cut to make it happen.

Why this doesn’t make sense: The Chiefs have four postseason trips with Alex Smith, and they have one win to show for it. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, and it’s hard to imagine the Chiefs want another ticket to the Smith show when they already know how the movie ends.

If Kansas City intends to turn the offense over to Mahomes, rip off the Band-Aid and get some compensation for Smith in a trade while he’s still worth something.