I never thought these headlines would legitimately scroll across a mainstream fantasy sports website, but we really have to start thinking about it.

Is Alex Smith a legit QB1 option in fantasy football?

The former No. 1 overall pick of the San Francisco 49ers in 2005 struggled through six frustrating seasons. During that span he went through six different offensive coordinators, less than ideal head coaching situations and a lack of ideal weapons on offense.
The results were horrendous.

Up until the midway point of the 2010 season, Smith wasn’t even a starter caliber quarterback in the National Football League.  He had threw 43 touchdowns compared to 52 interceptions and never compiled a quarterback rating of over 81 in any one season.

Needless to say, Smith was well on his way to becoming a bust.

Then something happened. He acquired talented weapons on the offensive side of the ball and actually legitimate coaching on the sidelines.

Smith has won 17 of his last 21 starts for San Francisco, throwing 27 touchdowns compared to just six interceptions during that span. If you take into account the 2011 postseason, Smith has thrown 32 touchdowns and only six interceptions in his last 23 starts.
At some point you have to come to the conclusion that Smith’s recent success isn’t an anamoly. Instead, it probably represents a progression that will continue through the 2012 season and beyond. Quarterbacks just don’t turn the corner and perform that well over the course of 23 starts to revert back to old form. It doesn’t happen.

Fantasy Impact?
Quarterbacks are only as good as the weapons he has on the offensive side of the ball. Smith completed just one pass to a wide receiver in the NFC Championship Game against the New York Giants in January.  Smith couldn’t get the ball to his receivers and they just couldn’t get open. This is what led to that ridiculously putrid statistic. 

San Francisco set out to fix those issues in the offseason. They added both Mario Manningham and Randy Moss in free agency, while picking up former Illinois’ speedster A.J. Jenkins in the draft. The results couldn’t have been more resounding for Smith and the 49ers against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. He completed all eight of his pass attempts to those two veterans. In total, 75 percent of Smith’s completions were to wide receivers in the 49ers’ big win in Lambeau Field.

Give him weapons and he will put up the necessary numbers to lead your fantasy team.

In fact, I made the decision to start Smith over Peyton Manning last weekend. This was due to the perceived favorable matchup for San Francisco’s offense going up against Green Bay, rather than my belief that Smith will provide a better fantasy output than Manning in 2012. The results were pretty much a split in regards to Smith and Manning as both threw for two touchdowns and put up nearly the same amount of fantasy points.

I am even contemplating going with Smith this week when San Francisco takes on a lackluster Detroit Lions defense.
The weapons that Smith has at his disposal on offense are nearly never-ending. Vernon Davis provides crazy matchup problems for opposing defenses between the hashes. No linebacker or safety is going to be able to guard the talented tight end one-on-one. Moreover, I am hard-pressed to find a nickel corner that could line up and take Davis out of the game.

If opposing defenses make the decision to double Davis, it is going to leave Moss, Crabtree or Manningham in advantageous one-on-one situations on the outside. That is a scary proposition for opposing defenses.

Conclusion
I want to see the 49ers open the passing game up a bit more before I am able to say Smith is a QB1 in standard fantasy leagues. Until then it is hard to come to the conclusion that he will provide more fantasy points than players such as Philip Rivers and Peyton Manning.

We may get a preview of things to come as it relates to down field targets this week against the Lions. You can fully expect Smith to take some shots with both Manningham and Moss on Sunday night. If that happens, it is easy to project his yardage total climbing significantly.
That being said, you know that Smith won’t give you those negative points that we saw from Michael Vick on Sunday. In fact, Smith has thrown one more interception in his last 600 pass attempts as Vick threw against the Cleveland Browns alone.