Troy Smith Finally Gets His Shot: Starting for Niners in London Against Broncos

It wasn’t the boos or Mike Singletary that took Alex Smith out of the lineup for the 49ers — a separated shoulder has the former number one overall pick out 2-3 weeks. Backup David Carr played so poorly in relief of Smith last weekend at Carolina that San Francisco has declared third-stringer Troy Smith their starting quarterback.

He wears number one on his jersey and he remains number one in Ohio State fans’ hearts, Troy Smith is in his fourth season (fourth already!) as a quarterback in the NFL. Smith seems to be the forgotten man when it comes to Heisman Trophy winners in the NFL. Selected in the 5th round in 2007, nobody expected much out of him in the pros so he’s never received the bust label. Weird thing is four years into his career, we really don’t have a clue who he is and what he can do.

Smith has thrown 89 career passes, completing 48 of them for 558 career yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. He was actually set to be Baltimore’s starting quarterback in 2008, his second year in the league, but a severe case of tonsillitis kept him from eating for four days and he lost 20 pounds as a result, falling out of football shape. Rookie Joe Flacco played well in his place and took over the starting job.

Troy Smith served as Flacco’s backup the last two years until Baltimore decided to bring in Marc Bulger as their backup. Smith went to San Francisco and wound up as the third string guy, sandwiched between David Carr and Nate Davis, and now we finally will have a chance to see him in action. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been waiting for a few years to see Troy Smith get his shot and I’m excited to see what he’ll do.