Smith's fresh start, outside threat Crabtree could awaken Niners

It took rookie Michael Crabtree a week to make an impact on the San Francisco 49ers -- and it came with Monday's announcement that Alex Smith, not Shaun Hill, will start at quarterback this weekend.

Alex Smith gets another chance to show he's not another QB draft bust. (Getty Images)

Smith is the team's former first-round pick who lost his job to Hill. Hill is the undrafted free agent who, until now, has been Mike Singletary's quarterback. He won four of his final five starts last season and three of his first four this year.

But that was then, and this is now, and now the 49ers have hit the wall.

Losers of three of their past four, they need a jolt to wake them up. So Singletary will turn to Smith at quarterback, hoping to find the quarterback then-head coach Mike Nolan and then-offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy thought they had when the 49ers made him the first pick of the 2005 draft.

Singletary's move makes sense, and not just because of the timing. If you're going to start Crabtree, the best wide receiver in this year's draft, you might as well have a quarterback who can get him the football. Shaun Hill is not that guy. In fact, when I mentioned something about Smith having a better arm than Hill, one source close to the team said, "You have a better arm than [Hill]."

So he's not Peyton Manning. But the 49ers don't need Peyton Manning. They just need someone who can get the ball to their wide receivers, which is something that wasn't happening before Crabtree showed up. Before Sunday's game against Houston, the Texans' Andre Johnson had more receptions (36) than the entire corps of 49ers wide receivers (31).

Then Crabtree showed up, and suddenly the 49ers discovered an outside passing attack. Crabtree had five catches last weekend, Josh Morgan had four and Isaac Bruce two. That's 11 of the club's 21 completions, and it's two more than 49ers wideouts pulled down in any previous game.

The reason is twofold: 1) Crabtree gives the 49ers the outside threat they haven't had since Terrell Owens left, and 2) Smith was back, completing 15 of 22 passes for three touchdowns. Of the two, Smith's reappearance is the more important. Crabtree can outmaneuver as many defensive backs as he wants, but until or unless he has someone to reach him with the football it doesn't make a difference.

Well, now it does.

Alex Smith has another chance to prove he belongs, and good for him and good for the 49ers. If they're going to succeed, if they're serious about challenging Arizona in the NFC West and winding up with their first winning season since 2002, they must threaten you with someone other than Frank Gore and occasional glimpses of Vernon Davis.

In Crabtree, they might just have that someone. The former Texas Tech star is a playmaker with great hands, explosion, the ability to go and get the football and a knack for finding the end zone. But he makes little or no impact if you don't have the quarterback to feed him.

I don't know if Alex Smith is that guy, but I would like to find out. Smith was sharp in relief of Hill against Houston on Sunday, and maybe that's the start of something. As I said, I know I would like to find out, and, apparently, so would Singletary. When I sat down with him last summer and asked about Smith, he was more optimistic about the quarterback's future than I imagined.

"Alex's strength is the potential that he has," he said. "For him, one day soon the light is going to go on."

Maybe that day was Sunday. Smith looked like the quarterback San Francisco thought it was getting in 2005. He was accurate. He made smart decisions. And he produced touchdowns. I can only imagine that a year-and-a-half of sitting, watching and listening did nothing but help prepare him for that moment.

Remember, Alex Smith spent his career in San Francisco changing offensive coordinators every season. This year is no different, with Jimmy Raye succeeding Mike Martz, but the feeling I had when I spoke to Smith is that once he understands what Raye wants he'll be fine.

"If there's gray out there for me," he said, "which a lot of times there is for me in a new offense, I play at such a slower pace than I do when I'm comfortable.

"But when I really know everything, and I go out there and react and cut it loose, it goes from really, really average to pretty good. The goal is to eliminate as much gray as possible."

Now that he has had time to absorb another new offense, maybe that can happen. All I know is that when Crabtree did his catch-up work with 49ers coaches during the bye week, it was Smith who stuck around to throw to him. That told me something about the guy.

Maybe it told Singletary something, too. I'm not naive. I know Alex Smith has been a bust. But I'm not ready to write him off as a loss. When Norv Turner was the 49ers' offensive coordinator, Smith -- then in his second year -- had moments where he looked like a franchise quarterback. He had those moments again last weekend.

Maybe he's comfortable with himself, the system and his coaches. He hasn't had to prove anything this season, and not having that pressure might have helped him. I just know that when asked to relieve a struggling quarterback he didn't merely pass the test; he aced it.

The 49ers invested a lot of money in Smith. They have invested a lot of money in Crabtree, too. Obviously, someone thought they could play. So play them. If Crabtree is going to make a difference this season, he will need help -- and he might have just gotten it.