Alex Smith says arm strength is overrated

Mike Florio interviewed Alex Smith on Pro Football Talk Live Friday morning. Florio asked Smith what is the biggest difference between playing quarterback in college and in the NFL, and here’s what Smith said.

ALEX SMITH: “For one, decision making. It starts there. You have to be able to make the decisions. You have to be able to process fast. There’s so much more volume offensively and defensively. You have to be able to process both halves and make good decision.

“Two, you’ve got to be accurate. I know a lot gets made of arm strength and things like that, but I think the guy who can hit his targets is more important, and I think that shows up more so in the NFL than in college.

“You see a lot of good athletes who can run around and have strong arms, but in the NFL that doesn’t always correlate. It’s the guy who can make good decisions, get the ball out and hit his targets and do that consistently over the course of a game, over the course of a season. Those are the guys who have success.

“It’s not a coincidence you see guys like Aaron [Rodgers] and [Tom] Brady and Drew Brees – those types of guys who are accurate, make good decisions, process it – they have a lot of success at the NFL level.”

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