Cris Carter is one of the few true success stories in getting clean and being a top notch NFL player. Guys like him are few and far between. Justin Blackmon is another guy like Aldon Smith. He just can't shake his demons, either.
The odds of Aldon ever shaking his are incredibly slim. Guys who have had these kind of chances repeatedly and fail usually continue failing. I pray he finds faith and clings to it. That is how Cris Carter rebounded.
Johnny Jolly couldn't stay clean, either. Addiction is an absolute crippler to all means of truly living right.
I'm sure Ted Thompson would say they're "doing their due diligence just like we do on all players" type of thing just like all other 30 franchises will say (Niners excluded, obviously)... it says a lot that he got cut. The Niners knew what a star he was and they just lost Justin Smith to retirement. Their DL is in total shambles without him yet they had to move on.
Usually, I'm first in line banging the drum for giving guys a shot here but I can't say I feel that in this particular instance.
Ted Thompson sits on his hands per former GM: "because they’ve had 25 fricking years of great quarterbacks. Of course it works. Try it without a special quarterback."