Leading up to the 2005 NFL Draft, the 49ers gave an edge to eventual No. 1 pick Alex Smith thanks to Smith's humble nature and a litany of perceived flaws in Aaron Rodgers -- cockiness, arrogance and a goofy throwing motion among them.
"The other thing as Alex at the time was a good kid -- a very good person, a safe choice, always trying to please," former 49ers coach Mike Nolan said Tuesday morning on NFL HQ. "On the other hand, Aaron was very cocky, very confident, arrogant. So you can say, 'Why didn't you take him to begin with?' Because that's really what your best quarterbacks look like. They aren't very pleasing. They aren't very safe."
"Basically, we thought in the long term that Alex Smith would be the better choice than Aaron," Nolan said. "It was one of those, maybe, paralysis by analysis. We had so much time to think about it.
"We put a lot of stock in changing Aaron's throwing style. We also got caught up a little bit in that Alex was so mobile. That was a good thing. But in the end, we felt Alex would be the better long-time guy. Obviously, we were wrong in that thought process."
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