Jim Harbaugh loves his quarterbacks. During the offseason, after becoming the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers but before the lockout ended, Harbaugh showered Alex Smith with more praise than he's ever received in the NFL. Harbaugh sounded like a man publicly trying to court Smith, even though it was all probably unnecessary. Smith ended up signing, and the two have a good bond these days.
That doesn't mean he's about to forget his old quarterbacks, though. He's spoken fondly of others to play under him, like Tampa Bay's Josh Johnson. At the scouting combine, Harbaugh had some choice words about Andrew Luck, quarterback out of Stanford and potential 2012 draftee.
"Potential 2012 draftee," is somewhat of a misnomer because Luck is certainly going to get drafted and almost certainly will be drafted with the first overall pick by the Indianapolis Colts. Luck is a player that Harbaugh would certainly love to get his hands on, despite his steady relationship with Alex Smith. It's not going to happen, of course, and it's very clear that Harbaugh is legitimate in his confidence in Smith. Still, there's a lot of praise to be had, as noted yesterday:
All great. Like I said, he's one of the finest football players I've ever been around. Is that good enough? And an even better person. One of the top 5 guys I've been around. So he's just a joy to coach. Not going to like playing against him. Not looking forward to that.
Harbaugh seemed like he wanted to focus on other things, but can still only offer high praise for Luck. At any rate, it looks like the future of the 49ers quaterback position lies in Alex Smith and, potentially, Colin Kaepernick. Nice to see the coach can continue looking at and compliments other players, even if they stand no chance to play in a 49ers uniform. After all, getting Luck would require, you know, multiple first-round picks, a couple second- and third-round picks and, of course, a player or two. So there's that.